Lifetime's "Surviving R. Kelly" series is frightening

03/07/2019

Surviving R. Kelly" is already the biggest story of the year and it hasn't it even hit the time of year for us to get our W-2's back in the mail yet. It has been the spark of every debate that led to protests across the nation. To truly define it, the six-part Lifetime docu-series is to R. Kelly what Hannibal Buress was to Bill Cosby. The #MuteRKelly is not a hashtag or just merely a trending topic that made headlines on social media, but a movement that has led to the termination of his contract with his record labels. Every episode served to be more disturbing than the last as the Lifetime painted a bigger picture of the truth behind what once considered to be humoring in pop culture in black and white. He used the popularity of being a staple within the black community and his sex- ually provocative reputation to manipulate his supporters into turning eye toward even what I found disturbing when I first found out as a kid. The only downside to the docu-series is despite them painting a bigger picture for the audience that was unaware of the allegations throughout his career, they still cropped the picture to build viewers around the trauma stories of the survivors and used this to hold R. Kelly solely responsible and not those also on his team that enabled him for over decades. I was disturbed by the recounts of every survivor story I heard from the women that came on but I was even more disturbed by the long- time producers and musicians that recounted themselves witnessing these disturbing acts being performed and choosing to remain oblivious to it, let alone continuing to work with him. He used his popularity of being a staple within the black community and his sexually provoc- ative reputation to manipulate his supporters into turning a blind eye toward even what I found disturbing when I first found out as a kid. We watched various celebrities, musicians, and journalists explain how a lot of their doubts pertaining to his accusations stemmed from their skepticism being that the Stories came from black women and THAT is very, very alarming. Overall, I believe that the docu-series was a needed step in the right direction towards raising awareness of the negligence and disrespect that black women endure on a daily basis. We watched various ce- lebrities, musicians, and journalists explain how a lot of their doubts pertaining to his accusations stemmed from their skepticism being that the Stories came from black women. I applaud all the bold women behind the #MuteRKelly movement.