Taraji P. Henson has provoked the wrath of Black Twitter after attempting to compare how the public has treated Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly on Instagram.
The What Men Want star posted a video to her InstaStory that showed her sifting through the hashtags associated with the #MuteRKelly movement, and then trying and failing to locate similar hashtags targeting disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein with the same fervor. She followed up the video by posting the thinking emoji with the caption “hmmm.”
While Weinstein was accused of sexual misconduct, and is currently on trial for rape, accusations which he’s denied, R. Kelly has been accused of having sex with underage girls along with sexually and physically abusing his partners. The singer has continuously denied those allegations as well.
Black Twitter believed Henson was implying that race was a factor in what she considered the difference in the discourse surrounding the two men. And social media users immediately pointed out that while Weinstein might not have a designated hashtag assigned to his alleged transgressions, he is facing a set of criminal charges.
He surrendered himself to New York City police and was arrested on rape charges in last May.
Weinstein was also forced to step down from his own company in the wake of the scandal breaking.
Executive producer of Surviving R. Kelly, which detailed R. Kelly’s alleged abuse, dream hampton expressed her confusion about Henson’s actions on Twitter.
“No idea why Taraji Henson wouldn’t know that there are not one, but two projects [about] Harvey Weinstein. But this is an oft-invoked deflection. While I care [about] the Hollywood stars Weinstein abused, I care more [about] Asante, Kitty, Jerhona, Lisette, Azriel & Joy & others, even more,” she wrote, referring to R. Kelly’s alleged victims.
After the backlash swelled Tuesday, Henson took to Twitter to make it clear that despite what it might have looked like on Instagram, she was still on the right side of the movement.
“Let me be clear R. Kelly is guilty and wrong and should be muted period!!!!!” she wrote on Twitter in all caps on Tuesday.