Waiting until guilt is proven is commendable and refreshing
For the first time in three centuries, Yale has revoked an honorary degree, this one from Bill Cosby, the legendary entertainer who was convicted last month of sexually assaulting a woman several years ago. The university was right to do it.
This is, or at least should not be, a light and hasty decision, and to its credit Yale publicly refrained from rescinding the degree—prior to the conviction. Having been determined by a court of law that he is guilty of at least some of the serious charges leveled against him, Cosby is officially a convicted criminal; and it is worth noting that, even without the conviction, his guilt seemed overwhelming, even by his own admission: The actor has admitted to offering women heavy drugs in order to facilitate sexual intercourse with them, which suggests, at the very least, a troubling sort of sexual pathology. The jury’s decision seems to line up with the facts in this case.
Yale’s forbearance is to be commended. We live in an age of hasty, snap-judgment public outrage mobs, wherein one’s guilt or innocence often seems to be determined by an Internet social media mob, and this is a disgrace: Whole careers can be ended on the basis of mere accusations, without any actual proof or even any gesture toward proof. A single tweet can upend a life. It is refreshing that Yale, which to its great discredit has been a hotbed of hysterical mob-like politics in recent years, withheld the rescinding of this degree until the judge’s gavel came down.
It must be admitted that the mounting evidence against Cosby has pointed toward his guilt for some time now; He has been accused of dozens of assaults going back decades, all usually featuring the same script: A woman is invited over, she is given a drink, she passes out, she’s assaulted. Indeed Cosby’s behavior seems to have been something of a known secret in the acting world for years: My 8th grade theater teacher once mentioned meeting Bill Cosby and in passing remarked uncomfortably that he was known as a “lech.” (“What’s a lech?” someone asked, at which point the teacher quickly switched topics.)
But rumors and innuendo—even public accusations—are not enough to prove one’s guilt. The courtroom, in which we might still invest a measure of confidence, is the best tool at our disposal to determine if someone is liable for an alleged criminal action. In Cosby’s case, the court has decided that he is in fact guilty. And so now Yale has decided to revoke his degree—and you can hardly blame them for it.
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