Taraji P. Henson did something yesterday which caused her fans to go “???” and “wtf!?” Taraji posted a video to her Instagram Stories where you can see her searching for the hashtags “Mute R Kelly,” which has tons of hits, of course. Then she searches for the hashtags “mute Weinstein” and “Mute Harvey Weinstein.” Here’s the video (which has since been deleted):
Somebody tap Taraji on the shoulder and tell her now isn't the time to throw her career in the drain for defending a trash can named R. Kelly.
Weinstein didn't need to be muted because he is currently facing charges faster than R. Kelly is right now!
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) January 22, 2019
It’s weird because the #MuteRKelly movement was about convincing people to stop buying and playing his music and to drive awareness around the fact that R. Kelly is a massive predator. We already know Harvey Weinstein is a predator, women have told their stories about Weinstein and been believed, and Weinstein is currently facing criminal charges. Many people were like “is Taraji caping for R. Kelly?” It was just a bizarre thing to do – I feel like, in Taraji’s mind, she was making some kind of point about how we treat white predators differently than black predators? Let me be the first to say that R. Kelly and Harvey Weinstein are both garbage and I hope they both never work a day again, and I hope they’re both sent to jail for the rest of their lives. It’s that simple, and it’s not about race.
Anyway, Taraji felt the need to clarify hours later (when her name was trending on Twitter and people were like “ugh, Taraji”). She tweeted this:
LET ME BE CLEAR R. KELLY IS GUILTY AND WRONG AND SHOULD BE MUTED PERIOD!!!!! 💋💋💋
— Taraji P. Henson (@TherealTaraji) January 22, 2019
Okay. So was the issue just that there isn’t a “mute Weinstein” movement? But… he’s not a recording artist?
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Sorry but Tarajii sounds dumb. I’m a fan of her but this is so disappointing.
it pains me to agree – she is a good actress, but seems otherwise pretty dumb and uneducated. She is also pretty known for her problematic statements and actions (her defense of Ryan Seacrest comes to mind).
She has a history of this kind of behavior. I don’t think she’s some evil person, but she either doesn’t think things through, or she genuinely is drawn to defending crappy people.
She pulled the “Let’s pop the trunk to your life and see what’s dysfunctional and what’s bad… At the end of the day, we’re all human and we got flaws and we got sh-t.” when it came to working with Terrance Howard.
She went off on the officer that stopped her son after he’d blown through a lighted crosswalk that people were ON at the time. He had said he had Ritalin that he’d gotten from a friend in the car (and pot, which he claimed he had a license for so whatever). And he’d been smoking two hours before driving, but passed the sobriety test. Taraji very publicly went off saying that her son was profiled (when his race was not apparent in the video at the time of the stop) and that they’d searched his car illegally. Because of her blasting them on Twitter the department received threats. She had to apologize afterwards, but I mean, she still did damage. And I understand WHY she is worried about racial profiling, and concerned for her son, but he’d broken multiple laws here. He was a 20 year old ritalin abuser who’s mommy had to speak up for him at the time. THEN she claimed she’d planned to send him to one college and instead had to send him to her alma matter because she was worried about him. But again – 20 year old who’s mom still babysits his life to the point where she’s picking his colleges for him.
She says hates being politically correct “Political correctness is bullsh-t. If I ask you a question right now, the first thing that comes in your mind is the truth. ” I think specifically this is a great quote to sum up her issues. She genuinely doesn’t care if something is right, or accurate, or fair, she thinks that an OPINION is equal to truth and we should all just be out there saying whatever pops into our heads. And that’s SO dangerous, especially when we live in a world where information can be spread in seconds. And at this point… she should know better. She has had enough issues with things she’s said or posted that you’d think at some point she’d learn. But I tend to think a big part of her just doesn’t CARE about changing or doing better. She wants to be able to say and do whatever she wants and defend abusers without being questioned.
She’s a decent actress, and I think she probably means well a lot of the time. But she needs to maybe reflect on the difference between truth and opinion, and not using her platform to spread stupid crap and defend people like Terrance Howard and sort of defend R Kelly because let’s be serious – neither of these men would defend her.
You said it *all* Erinn. Taraji has been cancelled for me since she defended Terrence Howard, and she’s literally never uttered a single follow up syllable that has made me view her more positively.
I went off her when she replied to a Latino fan and said, Shut up Dora! She does seem very uneducated. I don’t think she’s acting when she plays Cookie.
Perfect reply.
Sorry but she looks stupid! Harvey has had charges against him for quite some time…. R Kelly? Nothing! Maybe this is her way of saying no one listens to black women? If that’s that case then that’s different. But it definitely feels otherwise.
R Kelly has been a known predator for more than 2 decades since he “married” Aaliyah. Nobody cancelled him back then.
So yeah, i dont get what Taraji is getting at. Does she want people to not watch movies Weinstein has produced? How about all the thousands of decent people who have worked on those movies?
Doesn’t she still cape for Terrence Howard, who is also very problematic?
I think so. Also, didn’t she “sort of” defend Ryan Seacrest if I remember correctly? WTH?
you remember that correctly Renee. She only “clarifies” when called out for supporting guys like this
I could never really tell if she was trying to defend Ryan Seacrest last year on the red carpet when he spoke to her or if she was shading him. It was weird how she was talking to him.
This was such a huge disappointment for me, I’ve been a fan of hers since Baby Boy and I honestly thought she would know better than resorting to whataboutism. This definitely isn’t the hill for her to die on 😪
I’m surprised so many people were surprised by this.
She’s besties with Terrence Howard and has voraciously defended him against all sorts, she made a huge fuss of gushing over and defending Chris Brown when he was on her show, and after Ryan Seacrest was accused she went way out of her way to show her support.
Rushing to the aid of abusive men is pretty much her thing at this point.
She should just stop. For the sake of her career, if nothing else. And sort out her lack of self-esteem later.
I sadly get why she would act like this (things happen, life is difficult, women get abused and brainwashed to adore their abusers and men like their abusers etc) but i just wish she would stop.
Thank you for saying this…so I don’t have to….
We really need to start supporting black women who have been victims of violent crimes, full stop. They are a group that is extremely vulnerable because of racism AND misogyny. I could go on and on about how the police, media, & society don’t take their cases seriously at all.
I don’t know what Taraji is thinking but perhaps she thinks going against Terrence, Chris Brown, and R Kelly would be betraying black people? Thoughts?
I was thinking the same thing but she could easily avoid this by just not saying or doing anything. Now if somebody directly asked her a question she’d have to say something, but in this case, she went all in by herself.
Also, there are plenty of innocent black men to defend. Don’t cape for terrible people.
Yup. This is WELL and DEEP in her “wheelhouse.” Her (& Halle Berry’s) manager had to shut down his company after being accussed of sexual misconduct of 9 women. NINE…
And how much time does she need to “think” about this before saying stupid stuff? Weinstein’s downfall has been going on for MONTHS and R Kelly HASN’T BEEN MUTED!!! AT ALL! He’s RE-ENTERED the charts and had a sales bump with old songs SINCE the docuseries!! He’s MAKING money, DESPITE recent revelations!!!
Her backpedaling is becauae she was reminded by SOMEbody that she (and Erykah Badu, who has a HISTORY of this kind of stuff, too) coming out.
Yeah Jinny you said it all. I posted upthread I thought she defended Ryan Seacrest too. She owes an apology to those who created and participated in the #MuteRKelly.
#muteweinstein was not a hashtag. #metoo was a hashtag associated with Weinstein. This is comparing apples and oranges. There is a better way to make the point I think she’s trying to make.
I agree that white and black sexual predators (and etc.) are not treated equally by the very problematic and racist justice system. But is the solution to lessen the consequences for the latter, rather than working to ensure that sickos of all creeds are given their comeuppance? It feels that some are framing it that way.
it’s weird, I couldn’t tell if she was pissed there was a lot of #muteRKelly and she thought he was getting treated worse than Weinstein or what. White women were criticized for not tweeting against Kelly enough so the tweets in solidarity with the movement increased (some white feminists actually voiced concern that if they went all out w/the hashtag against Kelly they’d be called out as racists until Sami Schalk called them out for not posting about it enough) so if Henson claims society’s been harder on Kelly about this b/c he’s black, she’s wrong. For the life of me, I don’t know why he wasn’t canceled after marrying a 15yo Aaliyah and was mortified Jay-Z and others worked with him after he had 2 indictments for child porn (you’d think Jay-Z would have waited til after the trial to have some excuse for that)
If the larger argument is- we treat black people worse than white people- then obviously, yeah, in every area of life that is true, and it certainly should be pointed out everywhere it happens.
But this was a just flat out a terrible way to make that point.
If that was the point she was trying to make then she’s an idiot. R Kelly’s victims are overwhelmingly Black girls and women. By trying to drawing attention back to Weinstein (someone who is currently awaiting criminal trial) all I see is “What about the White women and girls?” “Why is all your attention not on the White victims?”.
FFS. 🙄
Yeah, I think the point she was trying to make is that black men get more heat than white men who do the same things. While this is absolutely true (criminal justice, school punishment, etc.), it was really AWFUL to use R. Kelly to make this case, and it was also foolish to try and compare two different hashtags, which aren’t apples to apples.
Weinstein has already been muted…?
I love Taraji as an actress, but her defense of certain men in recent years is very unsettling. I’m glad she clarified she’s not pro-Kelly, but it was not a good thing to do.
As usual, a woman chooses to side with a man who belongs to her community rather than with his victims who are women. Women siding with men over women happens over and over, I don’t understand why people are surprised. Worshipping men, throwing other women under the bus are all very common thing straight women do all the time. It’s pathetic and depressing but most women don’t realize that they’re doing patriarchy’s job. Liberal feminism encourages that after all.
And illiberal feminism, if it even exists, encourages what exactly?
deaf-toned.
tone deaf. *facepalms*
this is why we can’t “worship” these people … just admire their artistry and their clothes and move on.
God, if black women won’t stand up for other black women, who else is going to?? I find it seriously disturbing that some of the most vocal defenders of Cosby, R. Kelly, Chris Brown etc. are women of colour. Yeah, we can play the “whatabout” game until the cows come home, but a predator is a predator – full stop. The girls and women abused by these arseholes need to be front of mind, in each and every case. No whataboutery needed.
Dammit – I actually liked Taraji.