Campaign over sexual allegations against R. Kelly gets bigger as Time’s Up Women Of Color joins in
The #MuteRKelly online campaign got a whole lot bigger overnight, with a more powerful association of women of colour teaming up to stop the career of the R&B singer.
#MuteRKelly, which now numbers 65,234 members after starting last July, has been demanding he face up to 20 years of sexual misconduct accusations.
R. Kelly has sold 60 million records worldwide with tracks as ‘Bump and Grind’, ‘Sex Me’ and ‘Feeling On Your Booty’.
But there are allegations about his private life, from being indicted on 21 counts of child pornography (but dropped), to rape and threatening imprisonment to sex with minors, urinating on an under-aged girl, marrying a 15-year-old, and being sued by four women for sexual misconduct
As reported in TMN, a BBC documentary R. Kelly: Sex, Girls and Videotapes recently claimed he trained under-age sex slaves at his home.
#MuteRKelly has already successfully campaigned to get eight concerts on his current Memory Lane tour cancelled, picketed others, got some stations to stop playing his records and recently launched ‘ThumbItDown’ to get his music removed from Pandora and Tidal.
The interesting thing about #MuteRKelly is that it consists of women of colour – the same as his audience and the same as his alleged victims.
In February, Kalimah Johnson, Detroit organiser of #MuteRKelly, told VICE News Tonight that the campaign faced a dilemma as a result.
“One of the things that we’ve done in our families is protect perpetrators because we don’t trust the criminal justice system,” Johnson said.
“We protect people who are talented. We protect him. No one’s saying he doesn’t have hit records and he can’t sing.
“But the problem is is that he has a very problematic history with under aged black girls particularly.”
But now The Women of Color (WOC) within the Time’s Up movement has thrown its support behind #MuteRKelly.
WOC includes activists, executives, filmmakers, actresses, authors, athletes, and those in tech, advertising, science and other industries.
In a statement, the group said, “As Women of Color within Time’s Up, we recognize that we have a responsibility to help right this wrong.
“We intend to shine a bright light on our WOC sisters in need.
“It is our hope that we will never feel ignored or silenced ever again.
“The recent court decision against Bill Cosby is one step towards addressing these ills but it is just a start.
“We call on people everywhere to join with us to insist on a world in which women of all kinds can pursue their dreams free from sexual assault, abuse and predatory behavior.”
WOC is demanding allegations against R. Kelly be properly investigated.
It is also expanding the campaign to stop his career.
It is targeting R. Kelly’s record company RCA/Sony to drop him, Spotify and Apple Music from playing his music, and Live Nation/ Ticketmaster to cancel his tour.
Over the weekend, the singer was dropped from the Love Jam concert in Chicago on May 5.
Three members of Kelly’s inner circle—attorney Linda Mensch, publicist Trevian Kutti and assistant Diana Copeland—severed ties with the artist.
On April 9, a 19-year-old woman reportedly filed a criminal complaint against the singer, claiming that he knowingly and intentionally gave her a sexually transmitted disease.
Her lawyer claimed this happened while she had been “groomed to join Kelly’s sex cult.”