BlogHer - Outrage and a call to conscience in the wake of R. Kelly's acquittal - Comments

A lot of things seem to trump common sense these days

Kim Pearson — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:17:37 -0500

Let's hope we can get back to a consensus about a few basics. Your list is a pretty good start.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

Celebrity Status Trumps Common Sense

chronicchick — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:28:16 -0500

I blogged on a website after Naomi Campbell's acquittal for her "anger management issues" about where we are as a society when we could stand idly by as 'celebrity' begins to influence the justice system. Was R. Kelly or Wesley Snipes innocent? Did O.J.'s glove truly not fit? What does this say when we are willing to overlook lies, cheating, stealing and murder against our fellow man simply because one can walk a runway, sing a tune, throw a ball faster than someone else or looks pretty good on the big screen? When I made the comment on the blog that I didn't intend to overlook their actions, I was bombarded with people saying I was "too full" of myself, "not willing to forgive others", "live in a glass house"- and those were the nicer comments. Last time I checked I had not tried to deck a policeman, stiffed the IRS for millions, molested a child, or killed my former spouse so my glass house is fairly intact. What are we thinking people?

I think you make a good point

Kim Pearson — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:17:08 -0500

There is a lot of good social psychological research and theory documenting the existence of internalized racism and misogyny. The literature on the subject ranges from Grier and Cobb's Black Rage from the late 60s, to Patricia Hill Collins' Black Sexual Politics just a couple of years ago. Many of the men who have signed this petition, such as Prof. Lester Spence at Johns Hopkins and Prof. Mark Anthony Neal at Duke have engaged these issues not only as scholars, but as public intellectuals and community leaders as well.

It's just another way in which we all have a stake in ccmbatting misogyny and racism.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

I can't help but see how the

ByJane — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:13:48 -0500

I can't help but see how the attitudes of the original slave owners have been taken on as an idealized norm by a whole sector of their descendents.

By Jane

http://byjane.blogspot.com

http://midlifebloggers.com

I'm with you

Kim Pearson — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:48:14 -0500

I thought Kelly should have been prosecuted for his relationship with Aaliyah as well. If this isn't a case of money and celebrity trumping decency and common sense, I don't know what is.

I have a daughter who works in the music industry, and I see what she and other women in her field go through. The fact that Jelani, who is my friend, initiated this petition, and that I could immediately think of dozens of black men to whom I could forward it, has helped me contend with the profound hurt and outrage that I have been feeling about the fact that we are so routinely left unprotected and unsupported by those who should be our most ardent supporters.

Kim
BlogHer Contributing Editor|Professor Kim|

R Kelly Child Molester and Predator

Lovebabz — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:02:10 -0500

Sister Kim,

I appreciate this post more than you know. I posted about this on my blog this morning with links to you and this post!

Love,

Babz

Go Professor Cobb!

Lisa Stone — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 06:48:59 -0500

Terrific post Kim. Great leadership by Spellman's Cobb. Bring on the signatures.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

R. Kelly Acquittal

Candelaria Silva — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:50:54 -0500

Thanks for this post. Like the Nordette Adams, I am very happy to hear about the petition started by Black men.

Have you checked out the comments by one of the commentators on theroot.com? He felt that R. Kelly had been unjustly prosecuted since the girl in the tape would not testify, etc.

For me, R. Kelly's so-called marriage to Aaliyah showed that he has certainly had an inappropriate and illegal relationship at one point in his life. And that makes me all the more suspicious in this case.

Is this a case of celebrity money once again being able to buy an acquittal?

Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women

Nordette — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:11:02 -0500

Informative post, Prof. Kim. For me, finding out about this black men's group was the best piece of news. I appreciate their point about people still buying R. Kelly's records despite public knowledge of his history. Since I never followed his music, I was surprised to learn a few months back that he was still in the spotlight.

Not too long ago I dealt with a situation in which it became clear to me that the men involved were more interested in protecting the rights of a convicted sexual predator than they were in removing him from a situation through which he had access to the personal information of women with children, mostly minority women with children. You'd think their issue would be that "he's served his time." But some of them questioned whether the first conviction was valid. They wanted me to research the details of the felony charges, which were sexual assalt of a minor. I told them I really didn't care who did what. He was 38 when it happened. With whom under the age of 18 could he have had a legitimate relationship?

I wondered then, as I'm wondering now, whether some people buy into the myth that black women are promiscious, even little black girls, so choose to give the male more benefit of the doubt and in this case exonerate the male.

I've also met women who blame females, even girls, for a male's sexual behavior with them and who would be willing to give an R. Kelly a slap on the wrist if they thought the girl was a star-struck fan who "wanted" to be with him. When I talk to people who think this way I consider that the Stockholmn Syndrome theory about women in society makes some sense.

Who was on that jury, and what could the prosecution have done differently?

Very disturbing.

Nordette Adams is a Contributing Editor with BlogHer.com whose personal blog is at this link. You may see her personal blog feed on her BlogHer.com profile.

Outrage and a call to conscience in the wake of R. Kelly's acquittal

Kim Pearson — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:53:16 -0500

I'll be honest; I've been looking at singer R. Kelly cross-eyed for a long time, as much as I like such songs as "Step in the Name of Love" and I believe I Can Fly." I was always put off by his relationship with the late singer Aaliyah, with whom he had a bogus "marriage" in 1994, when she was 15. So I was not among those who cheered last Friday's verdict clearing Kelly of child pornography charges related to a videotape that allegedly showed Kelly having sex with a 13-year-old girl. According to news reports, some jurors said that they did not buy the Kelly defense team argument that he was not the man in the tape, but they could not be certain whether the female in the tape was the 13-year-old in question. The tape is about a decade old, and the young woman who was Kelly's alleged sex partner did not testify.

For bloggers and one very irate group of black men, the fact that Kelly's career has been barely affected by the trial and related controversy reflects a disregard for the lives of black girls and women. For example, here's Arlene Jones:

We seem to be in some sort of trance when we can justify a grown man
not only having sex with a child but recording it as well. It also says
a lot about all those who went out of their way to buy a copy of the
tape or scoured the internet to see it there.

Brittany Jackson grew up on Kelly's music, and believes she has seen its malign influence first hand:

[W]hen we’d walk down school hallways, we’d see boys
grabbing girls’ butts or saying something sexual. I think a lot of the
blame goes back to Kelly because he was particularly good at mixing the
sacred with the profane.

Miss Yaminah says that the sexual abuse of teenaged girls is a much bigger problem than we like to admit:

As much as we hate to admit it, R. Kelly’s case is more common than it
is an anomaly. I think the case is shocking to people because there is
actual evidence, a graphic depiction, of how a young woman is stripped
of her innocence. But it doesn’t start with the act. It starts in the
mind. The sacred feminine is not respected in our community because it
is not understood, and unfortunately, young girls being abused and
exploited is one of the consequences.

There is a group of black men who are inclined to agree. Contributors to the book, Be A Father to Your Child (Soft Skull Press, 2008), they have launched an online petition that they are asking black males to sign as a gesture of commitment to protecting girls and women from violence and exploitation. It is reproduced below with the permission of one of its authors, Spelman College History professor William Jelani Cobb.

Statement of Black Men Against the Exploitation of Black Women

Six years have gone by since we first heard the allegations
that R. Kelly had filmed himself having sex with an underage girl.
During that time we have seen the videotape being hawked on street
corners in Black communities, as if the dehumanization of one of our
own was not at stake. We have seen entertainers rally around him and
watched his career reach new heights despite the grave possibility that
he had molested and urinated on a 13-year old girl. We saw African
Americans purchase millions of his records despite the long history of
such charges swirling around the singer. Worst of all, we have
witnessed the sad vision of Black people cheering his acquittal with a
fervor usually reserved for community heroes and shaken our heads at
the stunning lack of outrage over the verdict in the broader Black
community.

Over these years, justice has been delayed and it has been denied.
Perhaps a jury can accept R. Kelly's absurd defense and find
"reasonable doubt" despite the fact that the film was shot in his home
and featured a man who was identical to him. Perhaps they doubted that
the young woman in the courtroom was, in fact, the same person featured
in the ten year old video. But there is no doubt about this: some young
Black woman was filmed being degraded and exploited by a much older
Black man, some daughter of our community was left unprotected, and
somewhere another Black woman is being molested, abused or raped and
our callous handling of this case will make it that much more difficult
for her to come forward and be believed. And each of us is responsible
for it.

We have proudly seen the community take to the streets in defense
of Black men who have been the victims of police violence or racist
attacks, but that righteous outrage only highlights the silence
surrounding this verdict.

We believe that our judgment has been clouded by celebrity-worship;
we believe that we are a community in crisis and that our addiction to
sexism has reached such an extreme that many of us cannot even
recognize child molestation when we see it.
We recognize the absolute necessity for Black men to speak in a single,
unified voice and state something that should be absolutely obvious:
that the women of our community are full human beings, that we cannot
and will not tolerate the poisonous hatred of women that has already
damaged our families, relationships and culture.

We believe that our daughters are precious and they deserve our
protection. We believe that Black men must take responsibility for our
contributions to this terrible state of affairs and make an effort to
change our lives and our communities.

This is about more than R. Kelly's claims to innocence. It is about our survival as a community.
Until we believe that our daughters, sisters, mothers, wives and
friends are worthy of justice, until we believe that rape, domestic
violence and the casual sexism that permeates our culture are
absolutely unacceptable, until we recognize that the first priority of
any community is the protection of its young, we will remain in this
tragic dead-end.

We ask that you:

o Sign your name if you are a Black male who supports this statement:

http://www.petitiononline.com/rkelly/petition.html

o Forward this statement to your entire network and ask other Black males to sign as well

o
Make a personal pledge to never support R. Kelly again in any form or
fashion, unless he publicly apologizes for his behavior and gets help
for his long-standing sexual conduct, in his private life and in his
music

o Make a commitment in your own life to never to hit, beat,
molest, rape, or exploit Black females in any way and, if you have,
to take ownership for your behavior, seek emotional and spiritual help,
and, over time, become a voice against all forms of Black female
exploitation

o Challenge other Black males, no matter their age, class or
educational background, or status in life, if they engage in behavior
and language that is exploitative and or disrespectful to Black females
in any way. If you say nothing, you become just as guilty.

o Learn to listen to the voices, concerns, needs, criticisms,
and challenges of Black females, because they are our equals, and
because in listening we will learn a new and different kind of Black
manhood.

We support the work of scholars, activists and organizations
that are helping to redefine Black manhood in healthy ways. Additional
resources are listed below.

Books:
Who's Gonna Take the Weight, Kevin Powell

New Black Man, Mark Anthony Neal
Deals with the Devil and Other Reasons to Riot, Pearl Cleage
Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality, Rudolph Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall

Films:
I Am A Man: Black Masculinity in America, by Byron Hurt

Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, by Byron Hurt
NO! The Rape Documentary, by Aishah Simmons

Organizations
The 2025 Campaign: www.2025bmb.org
Men Stopping Violence: www.menstoppingviolence.org