Culture Critic: Cosby Seeking New Solidarity With Blacks

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — After two years of silence amid an onslaught of sexual assault allegations, comedian Bill Cosby is sending targeted messages about racial bias across the media landscape ahead of his trial in suburban Philadelphia.

It continued this week in the Pittsburgh courtroom where jury selection was conducted.

After prosecutors struck two black women from the panel, defense lawyer Brian McMonagle attacked what he called the other side's "systemic exclusion of African-Americans."

In the end, two of the 12 jurors chosen are black.

Lehigh University professor James Braxton Peterson says he believes the 79-year-old Cosby is trying to build "solidarity" with the community he long rebuked.

The trial begins June 5 and is expected to last several weeks.