Hannah Soyer
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The Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture has chosen to feature a handful of Bill Cosby’s memorabilia from his childhood in an exhibition on entertainment. However, the allegations of sexual abuse against him have been completely left out. This has been a very controversial topic of debate, and in my opinion for good reason.

The museum is insisting that the exhibit is not an exhibit on Cosby but rather, an exhibit on theater, television, film, and entertainment and that there are only a few pieces that were donated by Cosby a while ago, before any accusations of sex abuse came out. Still, many people have protested the museum’s decision to even include these in the exhibit.

I believe in the idea of “innocent until proven guilty” and that the allegations against a suspect are just allegations until it is decided otherwise by a court in order to protect the potentially innocent people who have been accused. However, including that Cosby has been accused of sexual assaults does not say that the museum believes he committed them, it means the officials are simply being accurate in their history.

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Failing to include this huge part of Cosby’s public life seems to suggest that they want to present an all-positive image of the artist, and in doing so, this demeans the importance of the allegations and also against allegations of abuse in general.

This also raises the question of whether artists of any kind should be still be considered talented when it turns out they’re not a very great person. Obviously, talent is not automatically correlated with morality, and so even if people are terrible human beings, they could objectively be talented at what they do.

For example, Bob Dylan was widely known as not the friendliest person to work with, and yet his work in singing and songwriting paved the way for many musicians to come. Justin Bieber is, in some people’s mind, a talented musician. I don’t believe, however, that anyone would argue he’s a good person, given his DUI arrest and rumored drug use. But still, Dylan and Bieber (I cringe even having their names in the same sentence), haven’t done anything at the caliber of sexual abuse.

Maybe Cosby’s career as a comedian and his talent in his field should not be overlooked. However, the allegations against him need to be discussed right alongside his work, especially if he is being featured in a museum.