Color Of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization, is calling for action against R. Kelly in the wake of the premiere of the Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly, which aired Thursday.
The series features interviews with several alleged survivors of Kelly’s physical and sexual abuse. It was executive produced by cultural critic dream hampton, who is also a Color Of Change board member.
Despite more than two decades of allegations, civil suits and standing trial for 14 counts of child pornography, the R&B singer still maintains a fruitful music career and remains signed to RCA Records.
That concludes night 1 of #SurvivingRKelly -thank you to every1 who worked on this including @lifetimetv @TaranaBurke @dreamhampton @JamilahLemieux & all the women & families. Thx everyone who watched &/or tuned in on social. Take care of yourselves. -BCD (signing off)
— ColorOfChange (@ColorOfChange) January 4, 2019
According to the racial justice group, “RCA has relished in the publicity and intentionally popularized an image of R. Kelly as a palatable sex symbol, rather than the sexual predator he is.”
“We believe the Black women and girls who have bravely come forward with their stories of abuse at the hands of R. Kelly.”
In a press release obtained by EBONY.com, Brandi Collins-Dexter, the senior campaign director at Color Of Change, urged the record label to drop R. Kelly as a sign of support for the Black women and girls who have allegedly been abused by the music icon.
“The testimonies of survivors of R. Kelly’s sexual abuse are a chilling reminder of the deep damage the rapper has inflicted and the machine of complicity that protects him from real accountability,” Collins-Dexter said. “As details reemerge and new information is brought to light, R. Kelly’s longtime record label, RCA, has a choice: believe these women or continue to enable the abuse of Black women and girls for the sake of profit.”
She continued, “Over 27,000 Color Of Change members have raised their voices demanding RCA drop R. Kelly and stop enabling sexual abuse and we will continue to do so. That’s why Color Of Change partnered with Lifetime to amplify these women’s powerful stories and help bring them justice.”
Color Of Change supported the #MuteRKelly campaign and requested that RCA hold Kelly accountable and drop him from their roster.
Surviving R. Kelly continues on Lifetime Friday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The final installment of the six-part documentary will air on Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
R. Kelly still has a recording contract with @RCARecords – I’m reminded of a convo our team had with one of their reps when they said they weren’t going to take action against him (after they dropped Dr. Luke) because no one was organizing against him. – BCD #SurvivingRKelly
— ColorOfChange (@ColorOfChange) January 4, 2019
