ATLANTA — R. Kelly was charged Friday with 10 counts of aggravated sexual abuse, after decades of lurid rumors and allegations that the R&B star was sexually abusing women and underage girls.
For years, activists have pushed for the singer’s music to be pulled from platforms, his concerts canceled, and for the singer to face charges. One such activist, Kenyette Tisha Barnes, co-founded the hashtag #MuteRKelly and publicly protested the singer’s concerts.
“This is what we wanted for so long; so, now it’s just a culmination of everyone’s work,” Barnes said after news broke that Kelly would face charges.
It’s not clear if the charges filed against Kelly are related to tapes recently given to Chicago prosecutors.
In 2008, a jury acquitted Kelly of child pornography charges over a graphic video that prosecutors said showed him having sex with a girl as young as 13. He and the young woman allegedly depicted with him denied they were in the 27-minute video. Even though the picture quality was good and witnesses testified it was them, the alleged victim did not take the stand. Kelly could have gotten 15 years in prison.
Barnes said she is cautiously optimistic since the new charges and case mimic the prior allegations; however, she added this time there’s more evidence - and a spotlight on the singer’s character.
“I think what was different in 2008, is that there isn’t this groundswell of activism against him and there isn’t this movement of people that are saying enough is enough," Barnes said. "When there’s smoke, there’s fire, so we’re optimistic, this time, it’s going to stick and he’s going to see the inside of a prison cell.”
The activist hopes the charges in Chicago lead to more charges in other cases, including Georgia, where allegations of Kelly sexually abusing girls goes back to 2017.
In the meantime, Barnes said she and other #MuteRKelly activists hope to stop him from performing international concerts he has scheduled. They are reaching out to international governments to see other counties will block him.
“We’re also putting pressure on Homeland Security here to revoke that passport because what we want him to not be able to do is to travel abroad," Barnes said. "We’ve seen this happen again and again. You have a problematic person travel abroad and they just kind of go away in the abyss and we don’t want that to happen.”
Barnes and other activists plan to be at any trial that might take place.