telling me story wouldn't only help bring down cosby. i feared it would undermine the entire african american community. imagine that weight you carried. >> and still do. >> and still do. >> the cosby show came out, as i mentioned in the article, during a time in the '80s. this was a time when the central park jogger case was full throttle in the media. >> it was about a young black man attacking a white woman. >> yes. and the way black men were being portrayed in the media was really bad. >> he was a needed icon in the community. >> we needed that sense to feel good about ourselves i think, i think. i think that it made us feel validated and we wanted to feel you know better about ourselves. particularly in the '80s we had