On Friday, Phylicia Rashad who played Claire Huxtable, the TV wife of Cosby’s Cliff Huxtable on NBC’s Cosby Show, took to Twitter to celebrate the release of her TV husband Bill Cosby:
“FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted—a miscarriage of justice is corrected!” the actress shared in the now deleted tweet. That tweet did not go down well with Howard University students and alunmi who called her out, asking she be fired from her post as Dean of Fine Arts at the University.
Recall on Wednesday, Cosby was released from prison after a Philadelphia Supreme Court overturned his sex assault conviction.
In response to being slammed, the 73 year old sent a letter to students at Howard University apologizing for her “upsetting” tweet, admitting it had “had hurt so many people so much” however she didn’t concede support for him.
“My remarks were by no means directed at survivors of sexual assault,” she continued, adding that she will attend training “to learn how I can become a stronger ally of survivors of sexual assault and abuse. all those who have suffered at the hands of an abuser. ”
Mainwhile, commenting on the scandal, the historically black college made a counter-response, saying, “We will continue to advocate for survivors fully and support their right to be heard. Howard will stand with survivors and challenge systems that would deny them justice. We have full confidence that our faculty and school leadership will live up to this sacred commitment.”
Rashad in her follow-up tweet wrote;
“I fully support survivors of sexual assault coming forward. My post was in no way intended to be insensitive to their truth. Personally, I know from friends and family that such abuse has lifelong residual effects. My heartfelt wish is for healing.”
