#MuteRKelly Shines Light on the Power of Social Media Movements
This article may be a trigger for survivors of sexual abuse.
In January 2019, Lifetime, a channel on cable television, premiered “Surviving R. Kelly,” a docuseries for women who allege they were sexually assaulted by R&B singer Robert Sylvester Kelly, known as R. Kelly. As painful as it was to watch, it helped spark a movement that was created in 2017.
Let me preface this by saying some of R. Kelly’s allegations are not new. This has been a running joke in the Black community. It’s an open secret that he has allegedly assaulted young girls and teenagers. I remember hearing R. Kelly jokes on “The Dave Chappelle Show” and “The Boondocks.” Most recently, I discovered that it was also a joke on “That’s So Raven.”
Timeline
Let’s backtrack a bit, the #MuteRKelly movement originated in July 2017 when co-founder, Oronike Odeleye, saw that the self-proclaimed Pied Piper of R&B was accused of another sexual abuse allegation. According to the New York Times, the movement was a “campaign to punish him legally and commercially hopes to change that, receiving new life in recent days after a widely watched Lifetime documentary.”
This campaign, co-founded by Kenyette Barnes, called for people to stop supporting him by not listening to his music nor attending his concerts. Barnes has spoken out against the singer since 1999. After she read the BuzzFeed article about his ongoing lifestyle, she decided to team up with Odeleye through social media to put a stop to his livelihood. The movement started with a petition that received about 200 signatures, and the hashtag was coined by Dr. Stephanie Evans, a professor at Clark Atlanta University. The goal was to get an upcoming concert cancelled, and up to April 2018, they successfully cancelled 10 concerts and held five demonstrations at the concerts that were not cancelled.
The #MuteRKelly hashtag started gaining attention on social media in January 2018. Outlets such as BET, The Washington Post, and Blavity began to take notice.
In April 2018, Women of Color of the Time’s Up movement penned their support for #MuteRKelly, which made the hashtag a trending topic on April 30. After the support of women of note, including Lupita Nyong’o, Ava DuVernay, Jemele Hill and others, the hashtag became a trending topic.
The Impact
The movement was ablaze, it was picked up on media outlets, cable news and newspapers. The campaign was covered for weeks to come, Spotify removed his songs from playlists, labeling his music as “hateful conduct,” and Apple Music followed suit. This coverage prompted a response from the singer, saying the movement was too late. But it was just the beginning.
Kelly then creates a 19-minute song called “I Admit It,” which skates around the allegations and it makes him trend on July 23. I remember that day on Twitter and my informal sentiment analysis came to the conclusion that he wasn’t trending for a good reason.
There were more call to actions to stop supporting him. An “R. Kelly abuse hotline” was created for alleged victims to discuss their experiences with the singer.
Then we make it back to January 2019, when this six-part docuseries premiered, trending every time they released new episodes. I tweeted my disappointment and speculations.
I am very much an advocate for this movement. No one wants to see women suffer, and no one wants to see someone allegedly get away with it.
This documentary made the movement catch a second wave of attention, and this time, it made a major impact. Radio stations stopped playing his music. He was dropped from his record label. And he was facing sexual abuse charges for four alleged victims.
This campaign did what it wanted to do and more. They brought attention to an alleged issue, and got people to reconsider supporting the singer. Venues and promoters have been cancelling his concerts all over. Since the new allegations, more places are calling into question whether they should host him.
This is a great demonstration on the power of women in color using social media to fight.
