What I Wrote on Instagram:
#cyntoiabrown is being let free August 7th! This is amazing! More people need to make sure things like this don’t happen again! This what we need to see more of not what we have been seeing the last few days around this conversation. And yes I know this conversation has been hard but it is very important due to the reactions I am seeing around #rkelly At the end of the day black girls should be protected at all cost & we need to know how to protect ourselves because there won’t always be someone there to protect us. I think about my black niece & little cousins and this could have been them so this is of big importance to me. Also I just want all black girls to know your worth, your importance and that you matter more than any man! I am sending all black girls, boys, women so much love & light! As a world we need to do better by our children & our women stop stealing their light!✨💜
I grew up a black & indigenous women in the suburbs of Virginia. I have grew up in a two parent household as 1 of 5. Although not in an overt way I still was always told to look over my shoulder when I walked down the street. I also grew up in the AIM and MySpace era but I never had one. I had my first cell phone which was a pink razor at 15 which you couldn’t even go on the internet very well and opened a Facebook page at 17. I got my first iPhone at 20.
I am not saying any of this to make anyone feel bad about the way they grew up. Because I was the youngest child in my family with 4 older siblings and I was watched over a lot. My mom wouldn’t let me have a MySpace or AIM and due to financial reasons my parents didn’t have the money to buy me an iPhone at the time so I got a razor. Due to all of this plus my mom making me watch the Oprah specials on pedophilia and sexual predators and how to spot them at 12 years old I was very protected. I carried around pepper spray when I had to come home from working in DC and it be dark outside riding the metro and bus in my early 20s. When my older sister was younger there was this dude on our block who was flashing girls.
Why am I bringing any of this up? Due to the conversations I have been seeing around this issue of pedophilia and sex trafficking in the past week. Last week Lifetime aired a six part docu-series called Surviving R.Kelly. The docu-series shared interviews and first hand accounts from women (who were young girls at the time), their parents & family members, people who have worked with him and others who are apart of the industry who work with, were around him or just the culture of R.Kelly. I didn’t personally watch this docu-series for personal reasons but I absolutely believe every accusation of every accuser who has come forward now or ever.
So after the docu-series a lot of people have had a lot of things to say. The culture has been split 50/50. You have the rationale side of the culture who are acting as the adults we should be and have stopped following R.Kelly, listening to him and defending him. But then you have the other part of the culture who either still is listening to the music, still supporting him, blaming the young girls because they’re “fast or they asked for it” not holding the adult in the situation accountable for their actions. Even now a lot of people are learning that R.Kelly and his brother were molested as kids and using that as a reason to defend him. Then you have someone like Chance the Rapper who spoke from his heart no matter how you feel about it saying that as a black society we are programmed to care more about black male pain then black female pain especially when they are dark skin. Oh and then it came out that there where a bunch of celebs were asked to be apart of this doc who declined who have either worked with R.Kelly, supported R.Kelly or just admire his “genius”. Oh and shout out to John Legend who came forward bravely to come against R.Kelly because someone in the industry has too! All of this just shows us that for over 30 years we never took the stories of these young dark skin black girls seriously and we ALL helped to keep this man famous, employed and not in jail.
Cyntoia Brown who killed a man at 16 she was sex trafficked to who she thought was going to kill her who was sentenced to a life sentence as an adult was granted clemency this August 7th. This brings this to light in the mainstream public of the young girls who get trapped in these sex trafficking situations.
Also there have been some videos and interviews of Drake who has been hanging out with young girls. One video that just surfaced is of Drake at a concert fondling a young girl kissing all over her and touching her breast before asking her how old she was and she said 17 before saying “why do you look that way?” “why you so thick?”. Then there is him and that model he was “hanging with” as far back as when she was 16. Oh and of course the Millie Bobby Brown thing. She is the actress from Stranger Things and she is only like 14 and Drake is in his 30s and apparently people are cool with their relationship because it’s “cute”. He text her dating advice and who knows what else which is weird.
But it’s not just R.Kelly or Drake (not putting him in the same category) it’s literally so many celebs and regular people too. And sadly it’s in families, neighborhoods, schools, places of worship, Hollyweird and so many other places. We have to do a better job in protecting our young girls and boys. And not just in this country but all over the world. I mean in different Asian countries, India and Africa there is a high percentage of sex trafficking. In India and Africa they think it’s ok to have child brides and to sleep with young children to make sure you don’t get HIV/AIDs. In Mexico and many other latin American countries along with drug trafficking there is also big sex trafficking rings. And this is throughout history in almost all countries around the world. Why do people think it is ok to have sex with young little helpless girls and boys? Why I honestly don’t get it.
https://www.stopthetraffik.org/about-human-trafficking/the-scale-of-human-trafficking/
https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/resource/human-trafficking-numbers
https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/human-trafficking
But I will say black little girls and boys are the most trafficked people in this country and the world because no one really cares about them. Also what is very interesting to me is the fact that dark skin black women are still defending R.Kelly. The same color and gender of the little girls he is with to this day! It’s one thing when men defend (not that it’s right that could be their mom, aunt, cousin, niece, sister, ect) him because they just don’t care about women in general but when dark skin black women can’t even stand up for these girls who look like you then I just don’t know. *smh*
All of this to say:
WE AS A SOCIETY NEED TO CARE MORE ABOUT OUR YOUNG CHILDREN AND WOMEN!!!
Media to Help Have This Conversation With Young Children:
The Fosters:
Diamond in the Rough & Resist
https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/07/163123/fosters-season-5-episode-1-callie-russell-pimp-daddy
Degrassi Junior High & Degrassi:
A Helping Hand, He’s Back, Taking Off 1, Crossed Wires, Mother & Child Reunion 1, Mother & Child Reunion 2, Neutron Dance, Bark At the Moon, Queen of Hearts, Modern Love, West End Girls, Eyes Without A Face, Jane Says 1, Jane Says 2, You Don’t Know My Name 1, You Don’t Know My Name 2, Tears Dry On Their Own 1, Tears Dry On Their Own 2, Heart Like Mine 1, Heart Like Mine 2, Come As You Are 2, Come to Free 1, Come to Free 2, Waterfalls 1, Waterfalls 2, Sabotage 1, Boom Boom Pow 1, Boom Boom Pow 2, Idioteque, Drop It Like It’s Hot 1, Drop It Like It’s Hot 2, Dead and Gone 1, Hypnotize, Out of My Head
https://degrassi.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Sexually_Assaulted_Characters
Different Strokes:
The Bicycle Man, The Hitchhikers
http://www.ramblingbeachcat.com/2012/07/terrifying-moments-in-childrens.html
Mr. Belvedere:
The Counselor
Smart Guy:
Strangers on the Net
Sister, Sister:
Model Tia
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6nbbhj
Till Next Time…Protect Our Children & Women!!!
