In recent days, R. Kelly has compared the Time’s Up movement coming after him for sexual misconduct allegations to an “attempted lynching,” and Kanye West has been posting lynching imagery after he offended many by saying that slavery was a choice.
Since then, many have said they no longer want anything to do with both men, and the latest person to state that is Ava DuVernay, who’s part of the Time’s Up Women of Color organization. In fact, the famed director said Kelly and West using the term “lynching” to respond to backlash disrespects those who’ve been killed.
“I’ve had it with Kanye West and R. Kelly using the imagery of lynching as rebuttals [in response] to their dastardly behavior,” wrote DuVernay, who also listed some of the names of Black people who’ve been lynched throughout history. “Evoking racial terrorism and murder for personal gain/blame is stratospheric in is audacity and ignorance. This is what lynching looked like. How dare they?”
“Shame on you Kanye West and R. Kelly,” she continued. “If you want to have a real conversation about lynching, get at me. Until then, have some respect and dignity for the dead, the murdered. You’ve gone beyond embarrassing yourselves. You’re both in territory that you don’t really want to be in.”
I’ve had it with @KanyeWest + @RKelly using the imagery of lynching as rebuttals re: their dastardly behavior. Evoking racial terrorism and murder for personal gain/blame is stratospheric in is audacity and ignorance. This is what lynching looked like. How dare they? pic.twitter.com/wfobcdjiKL
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) May 2, 2018
The famed director continued to express just how irresponsible their words and social media posts really were.
“According to @MemPeaceJustice, more than 4,000 Black men, women and children were hung/lynched between 1877 and 1950,” she wrote. Kanye West and R. Kelly are using their heinous murders in tweets and press statements. Using our ancestors’ pain as punchlines.”
You can see some responses to DuVernay’s tweet below.
Understand your frustration but Kanye is not well. You can look in his eyes he can’t focus nor is he understanding what the dust up is about. What he is calling free thinking is manic thinking.
— Wileva Sims (@wilevasims) May 2, 2018
1900, and 1901 is 100 years ago….. not 400, not HUNDREDS…… there are people alive today who are 100 years old now, so this is in THEIR lifetime……… people can miss me with the “IT HAPPENED SO LONG AGO” speech, regardless on the color of the person saying that sh** ✊🏽 pic.twitter.com/Xr13UzBvsM
— Jovonni (@Jovonni) May 2, 2018
Baby I’ve been an educator for 20+ years.I teach kids we are only 4-5 generations removed from slavery! Me 48= 1 gen, my parents 75=2 gen, my grandparents 95= 3 gen, my great grans age ?=4 gen & that’s as sharecroppers. R history is recent!
— Ebony Dancy (@endancy) May 2, 2018
And they don’t even know because they don’t pay attention to history, that segregation and lynching and vote blocking police murdering blacks etc is so recent that it might as well have been yesterday, alot of it still goes on today. How has the recent past been erased from us?
— Kristina Hoerler (@KristinaHoerler) May 3, 2018
Alabama-360 lynchings. These are soil samples taken from the sites. pic.twitter.com/lfVlgGtvka
— Alean 🙋🏻📎 (@Alean4) May 2, 2018
Here is a better view. Remember, these are just Alabama. There were 4000 nationwide, mostly in the South that @eji_org has documented. pic.twitter.com/VKOmmUADmI
— Alean 🙋🏻📎 (@Alean4) May 3, 2018
