The #MuteRKelly movement is driving a weird wedge through the core of pop culture. Multiple stars have either been asked their thoughts on the situation or offered their opinion. On Tuesday (Jan. 22), actress Taraji P. Henson fell in the latter category when she took to social media to seemingly question the validity of cancel culture.Â
Henson began her Instagram story with a text post that reads "Checking on these #Mute for a friend." The actress then records herself searching "#MuteRKelly" on the app to find there are over 33,300 posts with the hashtag. She follows this by searching "#MuteWeinstein" and "#MuteHarveyWeinsten" to which there are only 30 total posts with either hashtag. Henson punctuates her demonstration with another text post captioned "Hmmmmm."
Because she doesn't use her voice in any of the posts, viewers can only guess what she is attempting to convey. However, many assume that she was trying to say that R. Kelly's sexual assault allegations are treated more harshly than the actions of Harvey Weinstein. This prompted many to either refute her claims or speculate her intentions.
Adding to the discourse was dream hampton, a executive producer on Lifetime's Surviving R. Kellydocu-series. hampton points out that Weinstein has had multiple documentaries about his sexual deviancy. Hampton then goes on to allude to the fact that R. Kelly's victims were not in the same positions of power as the actresses Weinstein assaulted. Also, like several other reactions, hampton reminds Henson that Harvey Weinstein is currently on trial for rape while Kelly isn't.
Henson later took to Twitter to elaborate, writing: "LET ME BE CLEAR R. KELLY IS GUILTY AND WRONG AND SHOULD BE MUTED PERIOD!!!!!"
LET ME BE CLEAR R. KELLY IS GUILTY AND WRONG AND SHOULD BE MUTED PERIOD!!!!! 💋💋💋
