Kelly’s case that first offered many Black families the sense that they too were part of that conversation. In previous high-profile Me Too cases - the downfall of the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which helped ignite a national reckoning, and the conviction of the comedian Bill Cosby that unfolded in its aftermath - most of the accusers were white women. Kelly was literally the soundtrack of their lives. He added: “Many Black folks grew up in a context where R. “When you think about a song like ‘Step in the Name of Love,’ that’s something you were apt to hear at a 5-year-old’s birthday party and also a 50th wedding anniversary party.” Kelly had a particular talent to make songs that resonated with Black audiences,” said Mark Anthony Neal, a professor of Black popular culture at Duke University.

Kelly’s accusers are Black women - many of whom were adolescents or young adults when they say Mr. The singer’s smooth melodies and charismatic persona captivated many Black households from the mid-1990s to early 2000s. Kelly’s trial stands apart from earlier high-profile cases involving rich and famous men accused of sexual misconduct and underscores the unique racial and generational dynamics at the center of the case. Thousand-member Facebook groups dissect PDF transcriptions of each individual witness’s testimony accounts on Instagram post updates on the court day against colorful backgrounds TikTok users break down the legal underpinnings of the racketeering charge against Mr. Kelly squabble with steadfast supporters, digging into details from the courtroom. Now, his criminal trial in Brooklyn is at the center of a swirling social media world centered in Black communities where fierce critics of Mr. Kelly as the accusations against him gained intense public attention in recent years. The channel is just one cog in an expansive online ecosystem that has grown around Mr. “I’m going to pick you up and give you the rundown.” “Come on in, have a seat on my bus,” the presenter said at the outset of one recent video, sitting next to a house plant, a collage featuring a courtroom sketch of Mr. Kelly has featured some 50 witnesses across more than a month of testimony - a blizzard of sordid and sometimes grotesque accusations and counterclaims.įor help making sense of it all, hundreds of thousands of viewers have turned to YouTube, where a host who posts videos as thePLAINESTjane offers near-daily recaps that sometimes stretch 90 minutes long and include the same images and documents seen in the courtroom.

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