“Lifetime’s Surviving R. Kelly shows what happens when being Black and a woman and working class render our truths inconsequential,” Color of Change writes of the site, which launched on Jan. 5, in tandem with both the documentary and a petition “imploring supporters to stand behind Black women and girls.”

Advertisement

“It is the obligation of all of us to show up for Black women—and to demand a cost from those who won’t,” the petition states, calling out not only Kelly, but his alleged enablers, including record label RCA, which purportedly allowed his predation to continue, in spite of decades of disturbing reports.

“It is our duty as a community to protect Black girls from sexual violence and exploitation,” it adds.

Advertisement

Of course, as we are frequently and painfully reminded, predatory behavior isn’t the sole domain of Kelly or any of the other alleged predators of his stature and fame. It transcends race, class and location and is a component of a larger, deeply insidious and widely condoned culture in which women are taught that our bodies are not entirely our own, while men are often taught to feel entitled to them.

And though there will always be exceptions to that rule and predators of all sexes, that overriding dynamic is indisputable and must be dismantled, especially within our already threatened and marginalized black community.

Advertisement

Because in a country that has historically found black bodies expendable, how terrifying and devastating it is to know that a population of black men consider our bodies even more so.