When R&B singer R. Kelly was acquitted on all charges of child pornography last week, America should have woke up.
Six years ago Kelly was initially charged with 14 counts of videotaping himself having sex with an underage girl who prosecutors said was as young as 13. After the trial was repeatedly delayed, nine men and three female jurors acquitted Kelly of all charges last week after less than a day of deliberation.
I never saw the sex tape, but I’ve heard from quite a few people who viewed it and all were adamant that Kelly was indeed the male subject having sex with the young girl. Since I didn’t see it, I can’t clearly offer my opinion as to whether it was Kelly or not, but I will say that I’m disappointed with the responses many people voiced once the decision was publicized.
“Even if it was R. Kelly, that girl shouldn’t have been having sex with him. She should have known better,” was what one caller said on a nationally syndicated radio show. When I heard those words as I was driving in my car, I nearly drove off the road because I was so shocked. Since when are children (at the time the underage girl was considered a child) held accountable for what adults do? It’s so unfortunate when sexual victims are further victimized after traumatic incidents occur. However, what’s even more unfortunate is the fact that the young girl was failed by the system.
America should have awakened when this verdict was released because if Kelly truly wasn’t the man on the sex tape, it means that there is some Black man out there who has had sex with an underage girl — and he hasn’t been held accountable.
As a society we have to do a better job of looking at things from a variety of perspectives, rather than from one angle. For instance, the now 23-year-old alleged victim in the tape recently denied that it was she on the tape, though neither prosecutors nor anyone else ever doubted it was she. So why would she all of a sudden deny being on the tape?
One reason I can think of is that she was paid off, or simply fed up with the system and the public. For the past several years, the young lady has been under attack for “throwing herself” on a grown man. She’s been laughed at, joked about and verbally demeaned; yet very few people in our community criticized Kelly. As a matter of fact, the superstar retained a huge following after the allegations and his popularity increased as did his record sales. While I can appreciate Kelly’s musical genius, I personally stopped supporting him years ago because of the history he has with young women (remember his marriage to then, teenage singer Aaliyah).
America should be wide-awake right now because there are some blatant injustices that happen and they transcend racial discrimination to include class. The situation regarding Kelly was not a race thing because both subjects were Black. It was however, a class issue because Kelly is this rich man who has all the perks of a superstar including a super defense team, while the young woman wasn’t in the limelight, had no money, and no one to support her during this obviously difficult time. When you look at things from that perspective, she didn’t have a chance in the world.
I must admit that I was a bit naïve in thinking that justice would prevail in this situation. I figured since Michael Vick received jail time for the maltreatment of animals, surely R. Kelly, or any other man who had sex with an underage girl would do time for rape. Boy was I wrong. The court’s decision last week tells us that the life of a dog (as precious as dogs are) is more valuable than the life of a human being. For Kelly or the unknown man in the tape to get away totally free, minus attorney fees is deplorable.
America needs to wake up, but Black America really needs to wake up and get a clue. I suppose Dr. Martin Luther King was correct when he said a man who stands for nothing will fall for anything. Our community has fallen and we’ve fallen hard. I wonder when we’ll begin to stand.
