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The 79-year-old American stand-up comedian, actor, and author, Bill Cosby is embroiled in a sexual assault case, and his lawyers say that he is a victim of racial bias and prejudice. “Mr. Cosby is no stranger to discrimination and racial hatred, and throughout his career, Mr. Cosby has always used his voice and his celebrity to highlight the commonalities and has portrayed the differences that are not negative — no matter the race, gender and religion of a person,” they said in a press statement.
This statement by Cosby’s lawyers comes after Civil Rights attorney, Gloria Allred held a press conference in California on Tuesday alongside an actress who claims Cosby sexually assaulted her during a casting meeting in the early 1970s. “Allred calls herself a civil rights attorney, but her campaign against Mr. Cosby builds on racial bias and prejudice that can pollute the court of public opinion,” they said. “And when the media repeats her accusations — with no evidence, no trial and no jury — we are moved backward as a country and away from the America that our civil rights leaders sacrificed so much to create,” they accused the media of being biased.
The trial of Cosby for the alleged sexual assault of a woman at his Philadelphia home will begin on 5 June 2017. Cosby has been accused by over 60 women of sexual crimes ranging from rape, assault, child sexual abuse, to sexual misconduct, over a period of several decades beginning from the mid-1960s to late 2008. The allegations against Cosby got public attention after an October 2014 comedy routine by comedian Hannibal Buress in which he refers to Cosby’s covert sexual misbehavior, went viral. Following this, many additional claims were made by different women. Cosby, however, has repeatedly denied the allegations and maintained his innocence.
Feature image courtesy: cnn.com