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.
