I read this article with amusement. In the six years since the r. Kelly incident I've spoken to persons in our community from all different backgrounds, and there is only one constant within the community: inconsistency. How black women, black men, black teens, etc., feel about r. Kelly, and even more generally, about pedophilia runs the gamit.
Like the author, and some of the commentors, I'm disgusted by those who "blame the victim" or more accurately, do not recognize that a 14 y.o. girl could be a victim when participating in sexual acts with a 30 plus year old adult male.
But unlike the author, I recognize that the black community is not monolithic, despite the caricatures of our lifestyles that exist in pop culture. And I think that is the problem with this article. Portraying to the world that "so many" black women support a pedophile says something extremely negative about black women. And while sexism is a real problem in the black community, this article's inflammatory rhetoric does not make it a tool to confront and route out such sexism. Instead, it is an indictment against an entire community of women.
Personally, I'm tired of being the scapegoat for every ill within the black community: the R. Kelly's, Mike Tyson's, and O.J.'s of the world. I'm also tired of being equated with those segments of our community that are incapable of more than simplistic thinking (every culture has them). I do not believe that a 14 y.o. girl is a sexual predator, rather than a victim of sexual assault. I do not believe that permitting black men guilty of horrible criminal acts "evens out" the system because of the many black males serving time for acts they did not commit, and I do not believe that a black celebrity, well-known for his indiscretions with young girls, deserves my defense, sympathy, or empathy.









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