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<\/a><\/p>\nBut Black women and girls \u2014 even more than women generally \u2014 face barriers to having their experiences believed and addressed, a reality that was apparent in the long history of Kelly\u2019s crimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been abundance and abundance of ways that the [R. Kelly] story has been told, and yet at every step there\u2019s been incredible resistance to accountability,\u201d said Treva B. Lindsey, associate professor of women\u2019s, gender and sexuality studies at The Ohio State University. \u201cThat tells me we are still a long ways away from where we need to be to not only prevent sexual violence, but to be able to hold those accountable for harm.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trial witnesses recounted in explicit detail Kelly\u2019s means of controlling and sexually exploiting young people, many of whom lived with him: The singer forced teenage girls and boys to engage in sexual acts with him or other men. He forced some of his victims to get abortions when they became pregnant. He also bribed a government official to obtain a fake ID so that he could marry the late R&B singer Aaliyah when she was 15 and he was 27.<\/p>\n
At Kelly\u2019s side was a network of people who aided and protected him, highlighting a \u201cculture of complicity\u201d that plays a role in other cases of abuse, said maya finoh, a writer, educator and organizer focused on anti-racism and anti-patriarchy work. That culture is rooted in the ways American society thinks about feminine-presenting people as more mature, more sexual and angrier than their peers, they said.<\/p>\n
A 2017 report from the Georgetown University Center on Poverty and Inequality found that Black girls, particularly those in the preteen to early teen years, were perceived in a survey of 325 adults to\u00a0 \u201cneed less nurturing, less protection, need to be supported less, comforted less, are more independent, know more about adult topics, know more about sex.\u201d Such tropes are rooted in slavery. They also have direct links to disparate punishment and criminalization of Black girls and women, the Georgetown study concludes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is even something that comes up in the trial itself, by the defense who maligned these women and girls as predatory,\u201d Lindsey said. \u201cThe ease with which that can be done is because of longstanding myths that are both racist and sexist about Black women.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly\u2019s defense team painted his accusers as fame-hungry, stalkers and liars, relying on a common assumption that women \u2014 particularly those of a certain racial or socioeconomic background \u2014 are untrustworthy. Multiple studies and high-profile cases have captured the ways racial and gender prejudice influence how the legal system responds to sexual violence cases and how people perceive survivors\u2019 credibility.<\/p>\n
One 2002 study funded by the Justice Department examined sexual assault prosecutions in two U.S. cities. Researchers determined that the probability of prosecutors bringing charges for assault without a weapon was 34 percent in cases with a Black victim and 75 percent in cases with a White victim.<\/p>\n
Leading up to the 2015 rape conviction of former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw, police investigators determined that he specifically targeted low-income, Black women who had criminal records or a history of sex work or drug use. The trustworthiness of these women was questioned by Holtzclaw\u2019s attorney in court.<\/p>\n
In the documentary Surviving R. Kelly, a juror from the singer\u2019s 2008 trial for child pornography charges said of the accusers, \u201cI just didn\u2019t believe them, the women. I know it sounds ridiculous. The way they dress, the way they act \u2014 I didn\u2019t like them. I voted against. I disregarded all what they said.\u201d Kelly was acquitted of those charges.<\/p>\n
National efforts to fight the systemic and cultural hurdles faced by survivors of sexual violence have largely sidelined the experiences of people of color. The #MeToo hashtag, to cite one prominent example, was created by Tarana Burke, a Black grassroots organizer, but gained viral status only after White women in Hollywood came forward.<\/p>\n
Given this history, R. Kelly\u2019s conviction does send an important message, said Samone U. Ijoma, an attorney and fellow with the National Women\u2019s Law Center.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving this national spotlight on a case where the majority, if not all, of the women who have come forward have been Black or brown women \u2026 I think that\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve seen that,\u201d Ijoma said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping that this moment signals some real change for how we think about, investigate and prosecute cases of Black women who come forward with allegations.\u201d<\/p>\n
finoh said they are skeptical of focusing on criminal prosecution as a means to achieve systemic change, but they do see the importance of holding individual abusers accountable. \u201cPart of me is wondering: What do his survivors need? Are they being fed? Are they being housed? Do they have access to therapy?\u201d finoh asked. \u201cIt needs to be about centering the needs of survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal jury found R. Kelly guilty of nine criminal charges related to racketeering and sex trafficking in the first high-profile court case focusing on sexual abuse against Black women and girls since the #MeToo movement began. Candice Norwood Originally published by The 19th It took nearly 30 years, dozens of alleged victims, multiple video […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,30],"tags":[658,161,659,660,293,75,661],"class_list":["post-3925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-streamapse-reports","tag-against","tag-black","tag-convicted","tag-crimes","tag-kelly","tag-singer","tag-songwriter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5882,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/5882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/streamapse.com\/Magazine\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}