From Protests To Celebrity Tweets: #MuteRKelly & The Year-Long Fight

Source: Scott Legato / Getty

Women of color continue to prove they mean business when it comes to fighting sexual abuse and exploitation.

They are so serious that they’ve created their own space within the Time’s Up movement to specifically address harm done to women and girls of color within the entertainment industry. One of the first people they’re coming after on their list?

R. Kelly. 

The singer has managed to maintain a career and radio-play after countless sexual abuse allegations, specifically against underaged girls.

On Monday , women of color from Time’s Up released a letter demanding record labels, streaming sites, ticket venues, and concert venues #MuteRKelly, and cut ties with the singer. They’re also calling for “appropriate investigations and inquiries into the allegations of R. Kelly’s abuse made by women of color and their families for over two decades now.”

While #MuteRKelly is gaining a lot of buzz on social media, the whole movement has been almost a year in the works thanks to some brave women organizing on the ground.

Swipe through for a timeline of #MuteRKelly from street protests to tweets from major celebs.

July 2017

Oronike Odeleye, an Atlanta-based managing director of the Creative Currents Artist Collaborative, starts a petition to get R. Kelly’s music off Atlanta radio.

“I have been hearing about R. Kelly’s sexual abuse of young black women since I was in my teens.  Every few years more women come out with their stories. More images and videos surface.  More Black girls are scarred for life just as they are coming into their womanhood and sexuality,” Odeleye told The Grio.

Summer 2017

Social justice activist and child pornography survivor, Kenyette Barnes, meets with Odeleye to created the #MuteRKelly hashtag and to get the campaign on and poppin’.

“We were outraged when we discovered that R. Kelly was scheduled to perform at a Fulton County owned facility in Atlanta,” recounted Odeleye. “As a local government owned venue, we were upset that Fulton County would let a well-documented sex offender profit from our tax dollars and expanded the petition to include demands that the concert be cancelled.”

2017 – 2018

Though the Fulton County concert was never canceled, other cities canceled their shows thanks to public protests, including Baton Rogue, New Orleans, Dallas, Memphis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City and Hampton Roads.

More protests happen in cities like New York and Detroit. A “ThumbsItDown” campaign also aimed to get R. Kelly’s music off streaming services.

https://twitter.com/Skoolwerk/status/957345569479028737

April 30, 2018

Women of Color from the Time’s Up collective release their letter joining the #MuteRKelly fight.

Celebs voice their support for the movement.

https://twitter.com/ava/status/990935166603448321

https://twitter.com/robinthede/status/990938090788343808