Mourning Heathcliff Huxtable

A Pennsylvania judge has ruled Bill Cosby will stand trial on charges of sexual assault that allegedly happened in 2004. A plethora of women have come forward in recent months to accuse the comedy icon of misconduct. I have no idea what happened; I wasn't there. I don't even know if "there" exists. I know only three things: One, playing an upstanding citizen on television doesn't make one an upstanding citizen; two, Andrea Constand, Cosby's accuser, reported the alleged assault to law enforcement in 2005, a year after the alleged assault occurred -- which for many is a year too late; and three, the focus of this article, the loss of "The Cosby Show" is a loss indeed.

I don't make light of the charges Cosby faces. If even one woman is violated, that's one woman too many. I will say, however, that it's a bit difficult to get overly worked up over something that supposedly took place more than a decade prior.

"The Cosby Show" aired from my teenage years until the year I graduated college. I basically came into adulthood on its lessons -- and since its 1984 debut until recently, countless young people also grew up under the tutelage of the Huxtable family, under the leadership of patriarch Heathcliff "Cliff" Huxtable.

The show filled an entertainment void. It showed a successful black family, one in which the parents worked hard, raised their five children with both love and sternness and experienced the various aspects of life the rest of us do -- the mastery, as well as the mess-ups. When it debuted, some complained it was not realistic, that it did not present the black family as the black family actually was. As I recall, such complaints came from the black community itself, the beef apparently being that black fathers aren't doctors like Cliff and black mothers aren't lawyers like his wife, Clair. I'll let that sit there; its ignorance speaks for itself.

This was, indeed, a black family where success was modeled and expected, where both the parents and grandparents had graduated college, where exposure to culture was prevalent and where achieving success was not "selling out." This was not the black family often depicted on television, and it certainly defied the many negative images of the black community we see in the media today.

Don't misunderstand now: "The Cosby Show" did not make race a focal point. The Huxtables were not the consummate African American family. They were the consummate American family. It was clear, however, by one look at the living room walls, one trip to an alma mater and one visit to a musical performance, where one of the show's many famous guests performed, that black pride was embedded into the fabric of the show. But it wasn't a cloak to be worn and paraded. It just ... was. And it was -- without pushing an agenda. Therein lies much of the show's success.

"The Cosby Show" engaged the emotions. If there was anything Cliff loved more than his children, it was only his wife. They were romantic and made viewers want to emulate their love. They fed each other cake, danced in each other's arms and encouraged each other's dreams. Clair honored her husband, and Cliff longed for the day the kids would move out of the house so he could, in his own words, "have my wife back." The children were loved and knew it. Far from perfect, they were, but never far from their parents' support. These are the examples we long for children to see, the reality people complained didn't really exist. It existed for so many people over so many years on the set of this show.

But no longer. When allegations of sexual assault began flying some time ago, reruns of "The Cosby Show" flew off the airways. A shame. Again, I don't know what Cosby himself has or has not done, but I do know entertainment is an attention-grabber, and thus, a powerful teacher, and I know there are many lessons youth can learn from this television classic, particularly its father. It is tragedy enough that we must mourn the loss of the image we had of Bill Cosby in light of this controversy, but to lose Heathcliff Huxtable also, with all the good he represents, is a double tragedy.

Adrienne Ross is an editor, writer, public speaker, online radio show host, former teacher and coach, Southeast Missourian editorial board member, and owner of Adrienne Ross Communications. Reach her at aross@semissourian.com.