Ebony made a striking statement with its November cover, dividing the masses over its shattered image of the seminal Huxtable family. While former "Cosby Show" star Malcolm-Jamal Warner previously told HuffPost he was disappointed by the distorted photo, Ebony senior editor Jamilah Lemieux told HuffPost Live on Wednesday that the actor may have missed the point of the image and cover story.
Lemieux explained she sympathizes with Warner and the rest of the cast, who are now at the center of a difficult conversation about the rape allegations, but doesn't think the cover is perpetuating a negative black stereotype as Warner suggested.
"I disagree with his comment that we're contributing to this image of the broken black family. The image of the Huxtables in the eyes of many people, has been shattered as a result of the allegations against Mr. Cosby and that's been going on for quite sometime," she told host Alex Miranda. "This isn't a new conversation, but this is a conversation that we felt, as a magazine, should lead, that we should lead and contribute to in a meaningful way."
Lemieux added that she is more concerned with the way the controversy has impacted the women who have come forward, than the way it has impacted the legacy of the '80s sitcom. While the fabled image of the Huxtables had an invaluable impact at the time, she questioned what an "ideal black family" truly means.
"A good black family does not have to be upwardly mobile. It does not have to be comprised of a mother and a father that are married to each other and live in the same household," she said. "You can have two moms. You can have a single grandparent raising three children. You can have a mother and a father that live in different parts of the country. There are so many different ways to be a beautiful black family."
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation about Ebony's November cover here.
Want more HuffPost Live? Stream us anytime on Go90, Verizon's mobile social entertainment network, and listen to our best interviews on iTunes.
Also on HuffPost:
