The blowback was still heavy for many black artists and there was risk involved.

I still push my bigger point; Bill Cosby's biggest contribution were his shows showing 'regular' black life at a time where we were still heavily marginalized. Its not as if he was an activist like his acting peers like Belefonte or Portier, and while he heavily donated money to higher education for black folks after he became a bazillionaire he did it from a heavy respectability politics stance.

We look at Cosby as 'one of ours' but his run for the past 15 years or so it wasn't necessarily the case.