The heroic status Cosby achieved, especially with Black Americans, was genuine and lasting, as evidenced by the mix of pain and pride among Bell's interview subjects.
But he believes Cosby's accusers, and he can't forget the star betrayed women who loved, admired and trusted him. "You do that to someone, you’re a … monster," White declares in the film.
"There’s all the good he did and all the other things that I and many others believe he did," Bell says in the documentary. "Lots of people said no to sitting down and talking" about Cosby."
People such as Marc Lamont Hill, a professor at Philadelphia's Temple University, who is especially sharp about the early signs of Cosby's behavior if only we had not all "mutually agreed" to never connect the dots in, say, that old "Spanish fly" stand-up routine, in which Cosby enthusiastically endorsed an alleged aphrodisiac that would render women helpless.
"From Day One he was talking about putting things in women’s drinks and getting them to do what he wanted them to do. So when we fast-forward, it's not a huge leap to think that what he was talking about in the '60s he was doing," Hill says in the first episode.