Time's Up for R. Kelly. GETTY IMAGES/MIKE PONT
By now you’ve probably heard about or seen Surviving R. Kelly, which aired on Lifetime last week. With more than 50 interviews, the six-part series by dream hampton unpacks R&B singer R. Kelly’s reported decades-long abuses against women—the vast majority of them Black, and many of whom were minors at the time. It is an important and powerful watch, providing an opportunity for R. Kelly’s alleged victims to share their horrific experiences of abuse.
For those who haven’t yet started Surviving R. Kelly, I do NOT recommend binge-watching. The docuseries has repeated trigger-warnings for a reason: Listening to victims detail Robert Kelly’s alleged sexual and physical abuse, especially if you’re a survivor of domestic or sexual violence, can be A LOT. You will likely become emotional and angry, or maybe reminded of something that happened to you or a loved one in the past. So maybe just take it one episode at a time and watch it with someone with whom you feel safe. Take breaks when you need to and allow yourself to pause and come back to it later. In fact, I recommend reading this Surviving R. Kelly Viewer Guide put together by Girls for Gender Equality.
After the docuseries aired, the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network Hotline (RAINN) reported a 20 percent increase in calls, mostly from people who wanted to talk about instances of childhood abuse.
In addition to a slew of victims and their families, Surviving R. Kelly also includes interviews with those who were in the singer’s inner circle, who either knew about or enabled his predations. The series really hammers home the obvious truth of how Black women are seen by society (and their own community) as not needing protection, and are often blamed for their own abuse, even as children.
For some of us, all we needed to see was Robert Kelly’s 1994 marriage certificate to R&B singer Aaliyah, which he had forged to say she was 18 when she was actually 15. For others, the “pee tape” was enough to cancel him years ago, when he went to trial over a VHS tape that featured him urinating in the mouth of a 14-year-old. And yet R. Kelly has been able to continue touring and making money, using his status to lure girls from high schools and local malls. And he has evaded any kind of real accountability for his actions. His riches and undeniable talent are what have allowed him to allegedly abuse so many Black women and girls for so many years.
As a Black woman and someone who was molested as a child, I've been angry about the lack of justice for R. Kelly for my entire conscious life. After seeing Surviving R. Kelly, and getting a better understanding of the severe depths of this man’s alleged evildoings, I'm more than angry—I'm aghast and furious that this is continuing to go on. What other time in history has someone had to go and make a giant documentary just to expose one person’s continuous, infamous crimes so that person can be brought to justice?
If you're not in a place to watch an entire six-part series, but want to know why everyone's freaking out on Twitter, Harley Brown at the Vulture wrote 5 Takeaways From Surviving R. Kelly. Spoiler: IT’S BECAUSE R. KELLY ALLEGEDLY STILL HAS YOUNG WOMEN BRAINWASHED AND TRAPPED IN HIS SEX CULT DUNGEON AND WE HAVE TO KEEP SAYING “ALLEGEDLY” BECAUSE THIS SHITFUCK SYSTEM IS DESIGNED FOR RICH AND FAMOUS MEN TO NEVER HAVE ANY CONSEQUENCES FOR THEIR DISGUSTING ACTIONS.
But it looks like the tides may be finally turning. Following the airing of the Lifetime series, the New York Times reports that authorities in Chicago and Atlanta are investigating allegations of abuse against the singer, and are looking to speak with victims and witnesses. It's too bad it took a Lifetime series to make it happen, but hopefully, Time’s Up for Robert Kelly.
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