Sex offenderBill Cosby shared a bizarre Father’s Day message on Twitter and Instagram from prison on Sunday, causing a lot of head-scratching on social media.
“Hey, Hey, Hey…It’s America’s Dad…I know it’s late, but to all of the Dads… It’s an honor to be called a Father, so let’s make today a renewed oath to fulfilling our purpose — strengthening our families and communities,” reads the post, alongside an old clip of Cosby talking about black men and slavery.
The clip was taken from a CBS Black History Month special starring Cosby and features him saying: “America invented the cruelest slavery in the history of the world because it broke up black families. After slavery was over, America kept breaking up the black man’s family and that’s some awful history to teach.”
Cosby, once known as America’s Dad for his career as an entertainer, is serving a sentence of three to 10 years in prison in Pennsylvania after being found guilty of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand, a former women’s basketball coach at Temple University in Philadelphia, where Cosby was a trustee, major donor and famous alumnus.
Cosby, 81, who has been accused of sexual assault or rape by more than 50 women over the years, reportedly asked his representatives to share the Father’s Day message.
Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt told USA Today that Cosby wanted to post the message in support a group called Man Up.
“Mr. Cosby’s [message] consisted of telling these men who have been incarcerated for many years, but are up for parole soon … to … take the word ‘disadvantage’ and remove the ‘dis,’ and start focusing on the advantage. That advantage is to be better fathers and productive citizens,” Wyatt said.
People on social media expressed utter bewilderment that Cosby wanted to post anything from prison, let alone a Father’s Day message.
Here’s what some had to say on Twitter: