The new Showtime Bill Cosby documentary series won’t appeal to everyone. It’s well done.

Before the controversy over the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s invalidating Bill Cosby’s 2018 indecent attack conviction and ordering his release in June, W. Kamau Bell planned to revive the discussion about the comedian’s impact on society given the allegations against him.

He then received the news which caused him to declare, “I don’t really know what the film is anymore.” This was near the end of his four-part documentary, ” We Have to Talk About Cosby,” which airs Sunday on Showtime.

Cosby should be thrown away by most people, so I don’t think this series is for those who agree with my views.

Despite the fact that Cosby’s conviction was overturned (but it doesn’t mean he’s not guilty), many, especially in the Black community, continue to swear allegiance to him, despite his misdeeds.

Entertainment Weekly was informed by a spokesperson for Cosby that Bell was a ” PR Hack”. He then explained how Cosby had spent more than 50 year standing with the excluded, making it possible for others to be included, standing with the disenfranchised, and standing alongside those women and men who were denied respectable work…because of their race or gender.

The series does a good job explaining why Cosby has been praised for his denial of sexual assault allegations. The series is also very skilled in highlighting the reasons Cosby continues to be worthy of a deeper examination.

Cosby should have been thrown out by most people, so I don’t think this series is for anyone who shares my views. This is for people who, for many reasons, are still trying to reconcile the man that they thought they knew with his predatory nature.

Bell stated that he was a Bill Cosby child and that he inspired him to become a comedian. “I didn’t think I would ever have to wrestle with Cosby, who we now know is the real him. Cliff Huxtable would be proud of me doing this work. I don’t know if he would.

While many of us may have already made our mind about Cosby for a while, Bell and other commentators provide their insights throughout the series. They show how unique a figure he has been in the entertainment business and how vital and important he remains to the Black community.

Cosby, as a comedian was long regarded as a master storyteller. Cosby was not only funny but also funny without being too corny. This feat is not easy for any comedian, especially one of his race. He is not only a pioneer for the series he starred in, like ” I Spy,” but also a change agent because he used his power behind-the scenes to fight for Black stunt performers.

Cosby created opportunities for Black actors while also battling the old tradition of white actors performing stunts in blackface. It was a habit Cosby had throughout his career and would soon be replaced by more Black TV writers, directors, and makeup artists, as well as other positions in the field.

These types of Cosby’s efforts were transformative. So were his efforts against the whitewashing American history in specials such as 1968’s ” Black History : Lost, Stolen, or Strayed.”

As Marc Lamont Hill, professor and news presenter, explains in the documentary that Cosby became the “first Black educator to which we had access” because of that and other shows that were aimed at children, like ” Pictures” or ” Fat Albert, the Cosby Kids”.

Hill said, “He was our first Black teacher.” Hill stated that Hill was the first Black teacher he had seen. Hill also highlighted that the racial disparity between Black teachers and white teachers in America is still remarkable.

There’s also “The Cosby Show”, which aired on NBC from 1984 to 1992. It featured a Black man who not only saved a network with his show about a Black family that was “allowed to thrive” but also used it as a way to change people’s perceptions of Black people in society. This, and his ability to be “America’s dad,” are truly legends. His philanthropy, advocacy for historically Black colleges and universities is a similar story.

Bell calls out, five minutes before the documentary’s end, in a voiceover: “Can you seperate the art and the artist?”

The timing of the question was curious to me, considering that the episodes before it made it clear that Cosby joked about drudging women for decades in his comedy albums and books. Is it really so difficult to discern the art and the artist when the artist in question wrote about : “an Aphrodisiac that could have made Lena Horne give up to Fat Albert?”

This habit was also carried by Cosby to “The Cosby Show”, namely the episode about the ” secret barbecue sauce ” that made women more sexually and docile. As a child, I found it disturbing. Now, anyone who is old enough to understand better should find it disgusting.

For those who have doubts about Cosby’s art-vs. artist question, there are many Cosby’s accusers on the film. They should be firmly stating that they can’t. Some of the accusers included women who were cast in roles on the show. Scenes that used to make me smile are now marred by stories of abuse or coercion.

Is this a negation of all the work Bill Cosby did? We can’t let ourselves be distracted by comedy and charity. We must stop seeing predators only as a certain type of person. Acceptance must be made that sexual predators are anyone, even TV dads. We must stop allowing what we perceive as a positive image to keep us from acknowledging abuse.

The thing I love most about “We Need to Talk About Cosby” is the fact that it revisits when he stated, in what has become known as his 2004 speech, “Pound Cake”, that poor Black people were not keeping up their end.

Although one of Cosby’s ex-costars dismissed the reactions to the musings as “overblown” in the docuseriess, that speech is still one of the most disgusting things I have ever heard. Cosby effectively blamed Blacks for their deaths at the hands law enforcement. Instead of asking about the systemic problems that keep Black people struggling he just smugly scolded. He enjoyed ridiculing Black people and he did it to the delight of conservative whites. This is when I became a pariah of the comedian.

While Cosby was moralizing to Black people, he was also being accused of rape . It is an indication of his lack of humanity when a powerful person speaks so harshly about the most vulnerable of us. It is clear that a Black person doesn’t care about all Black people when he speaks this way about others Black people. If a Black man uses such sexist rhetoric to show his hatred for Black people while avoiding rape allegations, then he is not of any use to the community.

Although I may never understand the motivation behind so many refusing to let go of a flawed symbol that was accused of being serial rapists, “We Need to Talk About Cosby”, while it doesn’t give you an explicit opinion on Bill Cosby, it should give those who are still uncertain with the information they need.

I chose to see Bill Cosby in Boston Globe editor Renee Graham’s description of him in the series: “He used to be a rapist who had a really large TV show once.”