Kimberlé Crenshaw: How R. Kelly Was Able to Dodge Justice

KIMBERLE CRENSHAW, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AFRICAN-AMERICAN POLICY FORUM: Of course, it’s a cause to be thankful that justice has finally been served, but it’s not a moment for celebration. After all, this was not a whodunit. The question was, does anybody care? R. Kelly had used black women and girls as props. He had consumed them in full view of everyone. He even called himself the Pied Piper, both literally and materially. He used his music to attract, to pursue, to use, to abuse black women and girls, and everybody knew about it. So this isn’t a question about something that folks just found out about. It wasn’t a grand discovery. What shifted was the fact that there was a movement primarily put forward by African-American women and joined by women who finally had some power to be able to bring him to justice. So, while we should be happy that, finally, justice has been served, this is an opportunity for us to really think about why it took so long, what it was about these black women and girls that allowed jurors to say, they didn’t believe them. They didn’t like the way they dress. They disregarded everything, they said. What was it about these victims that allowed superstars to continue to work with R. Kelly, music executives to continue to make deals with him, consumers to continue listening to his music? This is a part of a long history of the way in which black women’s sexuality, black women’s veracity, black women’s vulnerability has been dismissed in our culture, in our politics and in our society. This is an opportunity for us to really dig into it, rather than pat ourselves on the back.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: And yet you say and you point out, when everybody asks, is this a tipping point moment, is it a watershed moment — this conviction, I’m talking about — you recently wrote: “If the interplay of racism and misogyny that facilitates the abuse of black women and girls continues to be taken for granted as background noise, the opportunity to correct the wider historical wrongs that this shameful saga represents will pass.” So, right now, I’m going to ask you, how worried are you that this opportunity will pass, particularly in light of some extraordinary facts and figures? And that is that R. Kelly’s music and sales and all the rest of it have seen a massive spike in profitability to him since the conviction? What does that tell you?

CRENSHAW: Yes, there’s so many dimensions of this that make me worry that, once again, this will just be a blip in the history of intersectional injustice, some of the challenges that black women face.