Ava DuVernay's Twitter Thread Dragging R. Kelly And Kanye West For Comparing Media Backlash To 'Lynching' Is A Must-Read
Ava DuVernay recently took to Twitter to school both Kanye West and R. Kelly following their unjustified uses of the imagery of lynching during slavery to defend their most recently publicized actions.
In her well-articulated and succinct explanation, she pointed out that there is absolutely no connection between the two concepts and they should be ashamed of themselves for thinking otherwise.
The A Wrinkle In Time director started out by expressing that she has "had it" with the two musicians who "used the imagery of lynching as rebuttals" regarding "their dastardly behavior."
Furious over their recent comments, she highlighted that "evoking racial terrorism and murder for personal gain/blame is stratospheric in is audacity and ignorance... How dare they?"
Take a look, below:
In another tweet in her thread, the celebrated director directly addressed West and Kelly, urging them to "have some respect and dignity for the dead" before pointing out to them that they have "gone beyond embarrassing" themselves.
If anyone had doubts that her statements held any validity, she ended her spirited opinion by sharing some often overlooked statistics regarding the number of men, women and children who were hung and lynched between the years 1877 and 1970.
It goes without saying that the numbers are staggering.
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Her comments were made in reference to the rapper and singer's uses of the terms to describe how, in their eyes, their respective reputations and careers are being handled by the media.
In West's case, during a recent appearance on TMZ Live, after, once again, professing his love and admiration for president Donald Trump, he made the shocking claim that slavery was a choice.
"When you hear about slavery for 400 years — for 400 years? That sounds like a choice," he said. "Like, you were there for 400 years and it's all of y'all?"
He then went on to compare his current self-inflicted situation of public outrage to that of slaves who were lynched, tortured and had their tongues cut out.
"They cut out our tongues so we couldn't communicate to each other," he tweeted. "I will not allow my tongue to be cut. They hung the most powerful in order to force fear into the others."
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R. Kelly similarly made a statement regarding the heinous act, used as a metaphor for his current career handling by the media.
After the Women In Color #TimesUp movement — which includes DuVernay — publicly declared their support of the #MuteRKelly campaign, the R&B singer releeesd a problematic statement that proved that his alleged actions still seem justified to both him and those around him.
"Kelly's music is a part of American and African-American culture that should never — and will never — be silenced," it reads. "Since America was born, black men and women have been lynched for having sex or for being accused of it. We will vigorously resist this attempted public lynching of a black man who has made extraordinary contributions to our culture."
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Furthermore, another fallen public figure who proved to be the author to his own demise, Bill Cosby, is being looped in with 'Ye and Kelly for similar comments his publicist made using the very same analogy.
In response to his recent guilty verdict, Cosby's publicist, Andrew Wyatt, dubbed the situation a "public lynching" with another publicist, Ebonee Benson, ridiculously using the tragic story of Emmett Till as a parallel to Cosby's ordeal.
If anything has been made apparent by each of these men's approaches to the narratives they have — whether they would like to admit it or not — painted for and of themselves, it is that they are oddly and disturbingly out of touch. It is likely imperative that they get a grip as, due to the reactions from both the public and the judicial system, regarding their respective "experiences," their days are numbered, in more ways than one.
