Nobody Loves A Black Girl

Apparently, worth less than dogs in America.

If insanity is, as people like to say, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results...then call me crazy. Cause for all the times the justice system, the media, the Black community and America as a whole have reminded us that they don't truly care about little Black girls, I actually thought that R. Kelly was gonna be convicted. I feel so stupid right now. Like, smacking myself in the forehead stupid. WHY AM I SURPRISED? It took six years to get the trial to even start, the victim has refused to cooperate, there has never been any real outcry from Black "leaders", nor victims rights advocacy groups. The man has only recently fallen out of favor with listeners because his music has gotten SO subpar, that even the purveyors of Soulja Boy and Rihanna are like "Hmm, this kinda sucks." But there are still plenty of people, an embarrassing lot of them in my hometown, who see the Kelly trial verdict as a victory: one less Black male in prison.

WAKE UP PEOPLE! SOME BLACK MEN NEED TO BE IN PRISON.

Black man who needs to be in prison:


Black man who does not need to be in prison:


But despite Kelly's popularity and wealth and despite the constant refusal of the justice system to serve it's titular duty when it comes to little Black girls, I'm still feeling a little shock here. First of all, the defense presented a piss poor case in Kelly's favor; in perhaps the most pathetic argument ever heard in the history of law, defense lawyers held the movie "Little Man" up as evidence that CGI technology can be used to digitize someone's head on to someone else's body. If I were the judge, I would have ordered that lawyer out of my courtroom immediately.

Secondly, everyone in the world knew it was R. Kelly on the tape and half-the victim's family came forward like "Yeah, that was our girl and yeah, she was about 14 then." The girl's best friend told stories of Kelly giving the girl one to five hundred dollars at a time for shopping trips. I guess the money he ponied up to keep her butt lying to the police was enough to buy a few more pairs of Jordan's than that.

I've said all this before, haven't I? It seems like a waste of my breath now. In the past two years, I've written about the R. Kelly fiasco no less than five times. I guess I will let this be the end of it. There is one more element of the case I feel I failed to address. You see, in the SIX YEARS it took to get this case botched, I have heard one really disturbing thing from brothers and sisters alike: "She was fast". Because the girl was a willing participant in the sexual activities on the tape and because "she looked like she knew what she was doing", a lot of folks have chosen to ignore the girl's age and the responsibility of the adult in question.

There is a term for sex between willing youths under the age of consent and adults: statutory rape. And it is illegal. This isn't some obscure law, so why do people (ahem, Black people) want to act like it's not relevant here? In fact, every time I've heard anything about an underage Black girl messing with a grown man, there has been somebody there to say "She was fast". Yet, I've never heard anyone of any race refer White victims of pedophiles that way. Why is that?

I saw the tape when I was a freshman in college. From what I can remember, while it wasn't a "Superhead vs. Mr. Marcus"-level performance, yes, the girl did look comfortable. It didn't seem to be her first time doing this sort of thing. But I wouldn't care if she was putting it down like a porn star, it was illegal and wrong because she was a CHILD and not of the age of consent! It wouldn't matter if she came to R.Kelly's house buck naked with a notarized letter from her parents stating that they approved of her actions, it is the legal and moral responsibility of adults to protect and prevent children from having sex with adults. But she didn't have to chase Kelly, he had a years-long reputation of preying on little girls and she was one of many girls.

We can't do this to our little girls, y'all. We can't write them off as "fast", when they are being taken advantage of. I hate when women say "I would have known better than that at her age." Would you really? Yeah, you might not have messed with R. Kelly, but imagine it was one of YOUR teenage crushes or idols. I can only imagine what would have happened in 1998, had Maxwell or Lenny Kravitz or LL or someone else I thought was the bomb came to me (in my most insecure years) and told me I was pretty. What would I do if he wanted to spend time with me, buy me things, ride me around in cars I had only seen on TV and touch me like I was a woman? There is no way I can say honestly that I wouldn't have at least tried to go with their program. Perhaps fear or intelligence would have set in and stopped me from going too far....or would it? Maybe I would've turned on some BET videos and learned how to work it like a pro. Maybe I would have loved every minute of it. Without the guidance of an adult, there are a lot of things 14-year-olds will indulge in that they have no business dealing with.

Ok, so she "looked like she knew what she was doing", but God knows how many times this had happened at the point the tape was shot. Or how many older, more experienced teenagers he brought around to show her how to do what he wanted. Or if she cried herself to sleep at night or felt sick every time she thought about what she was doing. Or if she never felt like she was cute or pretty until this older, rich celebrity came around and told her that she was. But what about the managers, homeboys, employees and groupies who witnessed Kelly's dalliances with young girls year after year? I've heard numerous stories about members of his staff quitting because the singer wouldn't seek help or change his pedofile ways. But why did Aaliyah's own uncle quit years after the notorious marriage? Why have so many people enabled him? How could Mrs. Kelly bear him children? Is money our God and celebrity our church now?

The R. Kelly situation- the botched case, the refusal of radio stations, music sellers and concert venues to stop supporting his work, etc, says so much about where we are in 2008. Both Negronia and America as a whole have demonstrated in recent years a disgusting disinterest in protecting and respecting our girl children. Especially the Black ones, but girls in general are not being appropriately nurtured. How sick are we that a known pedophile has been able to sell millions of records, win awards from both music academies and community-based organizations, collaborate with artists that are marketed towards children under the age of 18 and now, walk free?

The American celebrity driven culture is a sick, sick thing. Our values are out of place like never before. Our interest in R. Kelly's talent has superseded our responsibility to protect our children. Next time you hear " I Believe I Can Fly" on some urban radio's "inspirational hour", just remember what else the singer does with the lips that sing that beautiful* song and imagine how you'd feel about that if he didn't have a record deal.

God HELP America!
Sister Toldja



*- For the record, I always thought that was an annoying and very contrived song. I will still call it 'beautiful', however, because it is inspirational to be people and the arrangements were good.