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Randee St. Nicholas/RCA RecordsA subgroup of the Time’s Up movement called Women of Color issued an open letter Monday regardingR. Kelly.
The statement called attention to years of sexual misconduct allegations against the singers, and announced the group was throwing its support behind the #MuteRKelly social media movement.
The letter specifically asks for investigations into a claim made in 2017 that the R&B singer is running a “sex cult” out of a house in Chicago.
Speaking to ABC News’ Start Here podcast, Joi-Marie McKenzie, who covers entertainment for GoodMorningAmerica.com, delves more into what the Women of Color collective hopes to achieve with their movement.
“The letter is really calling for quote ‘appropriate investigations’ into R. Kelly,” she describes.
“So they’re not saying R. Kelly hasn’t been held accountable, he was put on trial, he was acquitted, but they’re saying that the most recent allegations, the allegations from a 2017 Buzzfeed report that said that he was holding women against their will… they want appropriate investigations into that.”
McKenzie also believes that regardless of the #MuteRKelly movement, no one knows “what’s going to happen.”
“We don’t know if people will be held accountable. And for R. Kelly’s part, he’s denied every single allegation,” she adds.
“He released a statement to ABC News saying that he supports the pro-woman goals of the #TimesUp movement, he called the letter unjust and off target and so we’ll just have to wait and see,” said McKenzie.
“But I think the best and most important is that we’re having this conversation.”
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