hey look, someone else writes about it too

...the difference being people will actually read what he has to say.

R Kelly's conviction will jingle cash register even louder

Kelly, and the others, know that the record industry can and will deftly parlay their sexual outlandishness and defiance into millions in record sales. Kelly brashly seized on the commercially prurient relationship he has with the record companies in his last album, "The Champ," "Point fingers, throw stones, hate me I'm clever enough to know that the industry needs me."


But in the process, young black artists such as Kelly rekindle the vilest of racial and sexual stereotypes about young black males. Their artistic degradation has had especially dangerous consequences for black women. In Kelly's case the victims of his sexual vandalism, as witnessed by settlements of other lawsuits against him for having sex with underage teens, were black women. And his sexually odious singles, "Feelin on Yo Booty," "Bump and Grind," and "Your Body's Callin'" were virtual invitations to sexually trash black women.

Black women, especially young black women, have been the victims of that and much more. Homicide now ranks as one of the leading causes of deaths of young black females. A black woman is far more likely to be raped than a white woman, and slightly more likely to be the victim of domestic violence. Their assailants are not white racist cops or Klan nightriders but black males. And if the victim is a poor black woman, and her alleged assailant happens to be a fawned over rap star, justice will be slow forthcoming, if at all.