As with many of you, “The Cosby Show” was an essential part of my formative years. Nearly all of Bill Cosby’s work has a home in the DNA of my growth and education, inspiring my approach to the arts and academia. So when the allegations of sexual misconduct, sexual harassment, and rape came pouring out, I experienced the most jarring case of cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, here is this work I love and have no way of “unloving” it. On the other, the work’s creator is a sexual predator. Because I believe women and have sexual violence in my past, there is NO WAY I can support this man. Just as we’ve seen with R. Kelly, there was a melding of art and creator, to craft a whole new person folks felt they HAD to defend. This led to many people’s inability to see that two things can be separate, even the opposite, and can be true. The one truth that was still so hard to accept, that it even created arguments, is that while Bill Cosby may have gained the moniker of “America’s Dad,” he is not YOUR dad…and neither is Cliff Huxtable. Cliff Huxtable is no more your father than Max Headroom. To prove this, I decide to “kill” Cliff Huxtable.

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Writing “The Death Of Cliff Huxtable…So We Can Survive Bill Cosby” was less about preaching to people that they should stop supporting Bill Cosby and more about taking over a story and characters…a family, left to survive Cosby’s scandal. I wanted to take the wonderfully penned people, better known as the Huxtable family, and give them a current perspective the felt relevant, connecting them closer to us. I also wanted them to grieve the end of innocence for the Huxtable patriarch because no matter what, Cliff will never be absolved of Bill’s crimes. Cliff will forever pay for Bill’s crimes. So…I killed him…to show that Cliff isn’t Bill. He’s simply “drawn that way.”