https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/17/15981826/r-kelly-cult-sexual-abuse

Since he began following the Kelly story, DeRogatis has been vocal about how troubling he finds Kelly’s continued public success. “I’ve never expected other journalists and critics to feel as strongly about this story as I do,” he wrote in 2014. “But neither did I expect the cultural amnesia that for years allowed many to ignore any reference to Kelly’s crimes, despite the mountains of evidence in the public record, or to dismiss them with a fleeting nod to past ‘controversy’ or ‘rumors.’”

“The saddest fact I’ve learned is: Nobody matters less to our society than young black women,” he told the Village Voice, adding, “Kelly never misbehaved with a single white girl who sued him or that we know of.” DeRogatis cites Mark Anthony Neal, the African-American scholar, in making this point: “One white girl in Winnetka and the story would have been different. No, it was young black girls and all of them settled. They settled because they felt they could get no justice whatsoever. They didn’t have a chance.”

In his new piece for BuzzFeed, DeRogatis does not identify the race of any of the women whom Kelly is currently allegedly holding, but Kelly’s past alleged victims have all been young and black. If Kelly is following his previously established patterns, these women most likely are as well.

Which suggests that any success in freeing these women will depend, in part, on whether our society has made up its mind to care about young black women. It will depend on whether we are willing to fight for them.
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