Sexist Perpetraitors Are Not Playas But Haters Cause Misogyny Ain’t No Game: Addressing The Case of R. Kelly

The next time a Black man cries racism
when accused of violating a woman of the same hue
will someone please remind him that the sistah he harassed
is Black too *

The recent indictment and arrest of R&B singer/song writer R. Kelly comes as a rude awakening for the Hip Hop world that made him an international superstar. And the concern that results from his arrest signals a time of reckoning for the Black community that bore and supports him. On Wednesday, June 5^th, R. Kelly was arrested and charged with 21 counts of child pornography for directing, producing and starring in a videotape that allegedly depicts him having sex with a minor and engaging in a number of questionable activities including urinating on an African American girl. Although radio station jockeys, talk show hosts and comedians are making R. Kelly the butt of their jokes, the sexual molestation of young Black girls is no laughing matter.

Although Kelly claims he is not the man on the tape, his lawyer, Ed Genson, says that he “simply” intends to prove that the woman in the tape is not “underage.” “The charge is that there’s a young lady under the age of 18 on that tape and there isn’t,” Genson told The Associated Press the day following Kelly’s arrest. “That’s simply the stance I’m taking. We’re going to court and we’ll disprove that she was underage.” In other words, it is a crime to exploit a Black girl, but not a Black woman. Thus far, the uncontested fact in this case is that a Black man is willingly being filmed pissing on a Black female.

The issue that continues to stare our community in our collective grill is: Where do we stand on the exploitation and degradation of Black women when Black men are the perpetrators? We all know how we feel when white men exploit Black women, but we seem a bit confused when Black men exploit Black women, especially when that Black man is famous.

Why didn’t we see this R. Kelly case coming? His marriage to the late R&B songstress Aliyah at the age of 14 should have given us a clue. Then her annulment of the marriage should have been a bigger clue. Although he has shown his capacity to write exceptional music, his tendency is to create anthems of sexual objectification. This does not make him a complex artist. It makes him a contradiction. Chart-topping tunes with catchy hooks like, “I don’t see nothing wrong with a little bump and grind” and “You remind me of my jeep” make the point very clear: Black women are objects/property that exist solely for the sexual gratification of men. Already many are blaming the young girls in the video saying, “Well that little so and so should’ve known better.” How, when this very sexist message is reinforced in the minds of Black women on a daily basis in just about every rap or R&B song on the airwaves these days? When we uncritically support Black men above and beyond the interests and concerns of Black women, what is the message we are sending to the Tashas of our community? To the Jeromes of our community? We are telling our youth that Black men do not have to be responsible for their actions regarding Black women. This message fosters the callousness in behavior that buttresses the macho attitude behind the so-called hard-core thug and playa image that many of our male recording artists embrace. But this latest case of video-taped molestation is no longer about R. Kelly’s alleged pornographic impulses alone. It is a cause for communal alarm.

The fact that this video tape is accessible on just about any street corner in the hood means that this incident has gone way beyond whether R. Kelly is guilty or not. Like a virus this vice has spread throughout our community. Think of how many sick and twisted “thugged out niggas” want to be “guilty by association” and are now thinking about urinating on some little girl just for the @#%! of it. In their minds it could be the next best thing to being R. Kelly. This “incidence” further jeopardizes the lives of Black women. Pissing on someone is not a far cry from raping her or worse.

Yet, thus far Kelly has not been charged with statutory rape. Now we all know that if the girl in the tape were white, statutory rape would be the minimal charge levied against him. But because the girl is Black, his actions thus far have been excused and condoned. According to the American legal system, Black females are sexually accessible. As A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. illustrates in Shades of Freedom: Racial Politics and Presumptions of the American Legal Process, “From the time the first African-American woman was raped by her American master, the message was even clearer – in the eyes of the law, an African-American slave woman was not regarded as a human being and had no rights to control even her own body.” Folk are spending much time and energy dealing with R. Kelly being racialized and stereotyped as a Black male, and in so doing, are ignoring how the Black females have been racialized and stereotyped. In cases of sexual misconduct against Black women, they have to fight the age-old stereotype that no matter how violent, no matter how demeaning the act was, she wanted it, asked for it, had it coming. This racist/sexist lie is a carry-over from slavery when white men would creep from the mansion to the slave quarters to rape Black women, expressing their own deviant, prurient desires. White slave masters also forced them to have sex with enslaved Black men to produce more property for their plantation enterprise.

When we fail to support young girls in cases like this and we fail to critically analyze the racism AND sexism in this case, we support the system of white supremacy and capitalism and reinforce the wanton sexual mythology that has hounded Black women since slavery. Nowadays, Black men exploit Black women without the threat of the white man’s whip or his lynching rope. Those are Black men on the videos, on the CDs, in the movies and behind the scenes actively reproducing this age-old racist/sexist stereotype that dehumanizes Black women, and they are reaping tremendous profits in the process.

No doubt, there are some who will argue that this tape -- the sex acts and the language used in it -- is an exercise in free speech. For example, those who supported acts like Luke Campbell and Too Live Crew claiming that his music, his lyrics and his videos were protected by the free speech clause in the First Amendment. To claim that its okay to call Black women “bitches” and make degrading videos, is like saying that its okay for a Klansman to call a Black man “nigger” and to produce and distribute videos of Black men being lynched. Calling Black women “bitches” is not free speech but hate speech! But this latest event isn’t just about “mere” words. Now we have moved from lyrically pissing on Black women to literally urinating on them. Would anyone dare call that progress?

Already within the media, the cultural and corporate gatekeepers are squashing the criticism and the outrage of many within our community over this case, claiming that we as Black folk shouldn’t be “airing our dirty laundry.” First, somebody should’ve told that to whoever produced and distributed the tape. They are the ones that “aired” the “dirt.” Second, our laundry need not only be aired (discussed in the public), but also washed (critically examined), and actions taken to ensure the laundry (the problem) gets cleaned (gets resolved). That requires agitation. Like the agitator in the washing machine gets the dirt out, we need agitators that get to the root of the problem, so that when we get to the spin cycle (when the dominant media gets a hold of it) we’ll be clear (clean) and won’t come out the wash dizzy and confused, once again supporting our own oppression. It is time to address as a community the ill treatment of Black women in our society. By not airing our dirty laundry, our unresolved or inadequately addressed problems keep passing from one generation to the next like worn, funky, hand-me-downs. In keeping with the dirty laundry metaphor, consider the condition of the clothes our kids are wearing. The way they interpret Blackness and how they behave is an indication of where we are mentally and spiritually. We are not well. The torn and tattered rags we got from massa on the plantation have become the mental vestments our children sport today. This “proud to be niggas and bitches” behavior is sounding the death knell of our community. We ignore this now at our own peril.

Those who want to squash critique are often those who in some way profit from this problematic state. They reap profits by either making money from it or by keeping their own oppressive dirt from being exposed. When we excuse, justify and/or defend R. Kelly, we are really excusing, justifying and/or defending our own madness. When we justify that tape, we justify what is in that tape. And what is in that tape is what is in our community. And to justify, excuse or defend R. Kelly, his music, his videos, his relationships with underage girls is to justify, excuse and/or defend the incest, domestic abuse, the rape and violent language that is rampant throughout our communities. It is to justify the continued dehumanization and exploitation of Black girls and women. There are real life consequences behind our actions as a community. Oppression is all-pervasive. Only consistent self-critique along with an on-going social critique will provide the conditions for our development and success.

If he is found guilty and goes to prison, let’s not put him on some political pedestal. No “Free R. Kelly” campaigns. Another male dominant defense tactic is to say, “The government got it in for rich and famous Black men, they don’t want to see us successful.” Actually that is not totally true. The real deal is that the government “got it in” for politically active and organized Black men and women. R. Kelly is no Mumia Abu-Jamal. And R. Kelly is certainly no Assata Shakur. These are true political prisoners who deserve and have earned our support as an oppressed Black nation waging organized struggle for our liberation. R. Kelly is no threat to white America. Bush ain’t losing no sleep over R. Kelly. But we will be losing more than sleep if we fail to deal with the way in which Black women are imaged and treated in this country. We will continue to lose them to rape, incest, harassment, homicide, depression and suicide.

What kind of community do we want to have? What are the values and principles that will hold us together in a mutual embrace of respect, admiration and love? Love is justice in its most intimate expression. What is operating right now as the norm is a far cry from love. The outright hatred of women has become an accepted expression in many parts of our community. It is not just in hip hop; it can be heard and seen wherever we are -- in our homes, in the streets, in the churches, in the schools, in the workplace. This patriarchal pattern only breeds more and more disdain for us as men. Black women are gracious to us when they continue to hold onto the hope that we will get our collective acts together given all they have had to tolerate from us. But each time an episode like this one occurs, it draws a wedge deeper and deeper between us, making trust all the more difficult. The price of our complicit silence and defense of our madness is too costly. It is costing us our community, families and our very future. Is this the kind of world we want: One where it is okay to piss on Black women? Where is our outrage?! Why don’t we view this as the violent act it is? When will we ‘fess up and begin to address how male domination is an oppression that must be countered in our community?

It is possible for an oppressed group to oppress another oppressed group. Although Black men are oppressed by the system of white supremacy/racism and lack the necessary power to be “reverse racists,” that does not make us incapable of oppressing Black women. Male domination is a reality within the Black community. Black men exercise patriarchal power and wield it with brutal force over Black women and other Black men each day of our lives. We as Black men must challenge this. The survival of our community depends on it. And we don’t need to wait on white men to start. The eradication of male domination will not diminish us as men, but will redefine us as men who are so clear and confident in our own worth that we need not diminish, dehumanize or dominate others in order to express or experience ourselves. This work of dismantling male domination within ourselves as Black men and within our community, and redefining ourselves in line with the best of our people’s desires, must be informed and directed by the work of progressive Black women for it to have any integrity. This process of self-redefinition will radically reframe the terms upon which the relationships within our community take place.

Part of that process is for us to redefine betrayal. A Black man who violates a Black woman must be recognized for what he is: a traitor. Black women are not marginal members of the Black community; they are the Black community. Entitled to the same respect, appreciation and love that we desire from them. We as men need to understand that truth. To violate any Black woman in any way is to diminish her humanity as a woman of African descent. We are accountable to Black women for how we relate to them each moment of our lives. To mistreat, manipulate and exploit Black women doesn’t make you as a Black man a “playa,” it makes you a traitor, a violator and annihilator of your people.

Ewuare Osayande (talkingdrum@hotmail.com) is a poet, essayist, political activist and cultural analyst. His published books include, Gangsta Rap is Dead (1996) and So the Spoken Word Won’t Be Broken: The Politics of the New Black Poetry (1999). Currently he serves as the chairperson of the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Radical Congress.

* “Black Women are Black Too,” in Caught at the Crossroads Without a Map (Undaground RR X Press, 2001) by Ewuare Osayande

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