For years, folks have “heard grumblings and whispers” — as #MeToo founder Tarana Burke places it — concerning the questionable habits of Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“However I feel the query,” Burke provides, “was there ever going to be any degree of accountability?”
5 months in the past, Combs’ life dramatically modified. Singer Cassie, the music mogul’s former accomplice and a recording artist, sued him for sexual assault and stated he repeatedly raped and bodily abused her for practically a decade; they reached a settlement two days later. However subsequent lawsuits from extra girls adopted with claims of rape and sexual assault, and in February producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones — who labored on Combs’ current Grammy-nominated album — accused the entrepreneur of harassing and trafficking him. Christian Combs, the entertainer’s 26-year-old son, has been accused of intercourse assault in a lawsuit filed this week that additionally listed 54-year-old Combs as a defendant, a number of retailers reported.
Whereas Combs has denied all the allegations, his properties have been raided by federal brokers, he misplaced a number of model offers and he stepped down as CEO of Revolt, the tv community he constructed.
“What’s fascinating about Diddy is — completely different from different moments that we’ve seen round Russell Simmons or R. Kelly — the zeitgeist has modified and persons are able to imagine the survivors who’re coming ahead,” Burke tells The Hollywood Reporter.
“I feel there’s some unpacking to do there across the why. I wish to imagine loads of it’s as a result of the bottom has been set, due to what we’ve seen. For years and years and years, folks didn’t imagine these of us who have been saying R. Kelly was harmful. Even after the #MeToo motion burst onto the scene, it nonetheless took a monumental effort,” Burke says, referring to the #MuteRKelly marketing campaign and the Emmy-nominated docuseries Surviving R. Kelly. “That’s the distinction: In our neighborhood — communities of shade, notably Black communities — we haven’t had the posh of having the ability to come ahead. So this Diddy second is indicative of loads of change that began from the hashtag going viral to now.”
Within the interview with THR beneath, Burke discusses Combs, the homophobia within the Black neighborhood round his allegations and “why the motion needs to be larger than Diddy.”
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Some folks really feel just like the #MeToo motion in music hasn’t been unpacked like in different industries. With the tales popping out about Diddy, may there be a domino impact?
Sure. As a result of persons are believing [the victims]. The distinction is that folks didn’t imagine the ladies.
I’ve heard continually, since 2017, “When are we going to have a #MeToo motion in hip-hop? When are we going to have a #MeToo motion in music?” My response to that’s, “When are we going to permit it?” The motion is just not predicated on singular folks. However I acknowledge and perceive how symbolic it’s for people once they see an enormous individual be held accountable for misdeeds that they’ve been listening to about. R. Kelly was an enormous determine in music that didn’t trigger the “domino impact”; Russell Simmons didn’t trigger the “domino impact”; Trey Songz didn’t. There have been many alternative people, even non-Black folks. Marilyn Manson.
There have been figures of non-Black males who’ve been referred to as out and accused previously seven years. Actions are made of individuals, they’re not manufactured from hashtags. And so the motion that folks wish to see needs to be the motion that we demand. So if we wish to see a domino impact and we wish to see extra of this occur and extra accountability, folks must demand extra accountability.
As we watch this factor unfold, I simply actually need folks to know that that is larger than Diddy. The hurt is greater than Diddy, and that’s why the motion needs to be larger than Diddy. That’s the most important cause for this stuff to be massive and public — as a result of it turns into a blueprint for what’s doable for a similar form of violence occurring throughout our communities. As a result of we all know that the whole lot that occurred in a mansion in Hollywood, Miami and the Caribbean occurred in some form, type or vogue in our properties and in our communities.
The web has been filled with memes and jokes concerning the Diddy allegations. What do you make of that?
What I really like about my people, Black people, is that we are going to discover humor in the whole lot. It’s one of many issues that’s most lovely about us and, in moments like this, it’s one of many issues that’s onerous to carry. As a result of, within the midst of all of the Diddy memes and jokes which can be flying all over, we’re forgetting anyone who’s learn these authorized paperwork. These issues are horrific.
The allegations of the issues that he did, and made folks do — that’s horrible. They’re actual human beings behind these phrases which can be typed in these paperwork. These are actual folks. It takes me again to the R. Kelly jokes. We are able to scale back it to a joke, and it minimizes the depravity, and it takes the highlight off of who we ought to be speaking about, that are the individuals who needed to endure that.
A component right here that we additionally don’t speak about with Diddy is the homophobia. Sure, there’s stuff about Cassie that folks dismiss as, “Nicely, she was his girlfriend and he or she needed to get some cash. She knew what was occurring. Oh, however Diddy may be doing this to males” — then it turns into a joke. Then it turns into: These males usually are not actually victims. We don’t take into consideration them as survivors, we don’t take into consideration them as susceptible. We don’t take into consideration any of these issues. It doesn’t develop into about victimhood, it turns into nearly a chance to choose aside homosexuality and make it into some form of depravity. So there’s a nuance there about this explicit case that doesn’t present safety for different folks, for different survivors.
Are you stunned to see a few of this enjoying out the best way it’s relating to Diddy?
I’m. I’m very stunned. I’m stunned to see it occur in a manner like, “Wow, this took so lengthy and we watched it for thus lengthy. We form of knew no matter may very well be occurring.” I’m stunned due to how massive he’s. [Also], you’ll be able to’t probably assume you’re going to get away with it without end.
To return to the motion angle of it, I feel the world is altering. I feel outdoors of the remark sections of the web, younger persons are manner much less tolerant of this type of violence, this type of depravity and deviance being mainstreamed, and are far more keen to name it out. In order that’s useful, too.
Diddy has supplied the soundtrack to loads of Black folks’s lives — and a few in the neighborhood don’t wish to imagine what’s occurring and others are believing the victims. Are you able to speak about that complicated nature when allegations are introduced up a few historic determine within the Black neighborhood?
I feel these are the precise phrases. It’s complicated. However it’s doable to embrace complexity. And now we now have expertise with that. We now have come by a number of folks — Invoice Cosby, Russell Simmons, R. Kelly — these are individuals who within the Black neighborhood particularly held very particular locations; there are such a lot of individuals who maintain on to idolizing them whatever the accusations and whatever the convictions.
However there are others who’re like, “Wow, I feel Invoice Cosby is tremendous improper, however I actually love The Cosby Present.” I feel we now have to sit down with that complication and other people must make decisions which can be proper for them.
Michael Jackson‘s one other one, proper? There are tons of people that wholeheartedly don’t imagine that there’s a factor. After which there are different individuals who realize it of their coronary heart they usually’re like, “I don’t care.” The folks sit elsewhere about him. It’s advantageous. However I actually really feel like what’s vital in our neighborhood is that we’re speaking about sexual violence. What we do loads of instances is put blinders on. We don’t wish to give it some thought. We don’t wish to think about it.
It’s going to be the identical factor with Diddy, proper? It’s practically not possible if you’re of a sure age [to escape Diddy’s influence on pop culture]. The opposite day I used to be within the retailer and [the Diddy-produced 1996 hit] “The Issues That You Do” by Gina Thompson got here on, and that’s one in every of my favourite songs. That’s how we met Missy Elliott. You aren’t dismissing Missy by any stretch of creativeness. That’s not even a factor. So Diddy leads us to all of those different folks, it’s virtually like he [connects the dots] from Dangerous Boy Information.
So I doubt that folks will launch that music or will launch the cultural items that we obtained from his skills. However we must embrace the truth of what we’re seeing and listening to. I personally can’t hearken to R. Kelly as a result of it simply disgusts me; you hearken to his lyrics, you’ll be able to hear remnants of him speaking about younger ladies. I can’t put my music earlier than my integrity and what it makes me really feel. I additionally take into consideration what it says to different folks — what does it say to different survivors to listen to me say, “Nicely, I don’t care.” I’ve to take that into consideration. And I feel the identical factor will occur with Diddy. Individuals will determine whether it is an excessive amount of or too poisonous. I feel these of us who’ve learn the authorized paperwork will most likely be like, “Oof.”
Diddy may be very related and loads of his celeb pals and friends — who’ve supported victims previously — have been silent. Why do you assume that’s?
I’ve been labeled as this one who hates Black males, which couldn’t be farther from the reality. I don’t like Black males who abuse folks. I don’t like all one who abuses folks. I don’t care who you might be, the way you determine. So I perceive that.
I really feel just like the worry is multilayered. I feel folks worry being ostracized. I feel we get actually protecting about our people. In a case like this with Diddy, should you’re within the trade although, he’s nonetheless highly effective. There’s nonetheless tentacles. There are people who find themselves Diddy-adjacent who could also be watching and seeking to see how persons are transferring. [What] if he comes by all of this clear and goes to Bali after which rebuilds?
If he wins in court docket, you and I do know this complete situation, and also you and I do know that Black persons are so forgiving, so he may have a smudge on his identify. He’ll have an asterisk subsequent to his identify. However we may very well be taking a look at three years from now — look, Russell Simmons is strolling round. This can be a serial state of affairs and he’s managed to shift the narrative. I take into consideration this on a regular basis as a result of so many individuals all the time ship these items to me — MC Lyte was out in Bali with Russell Simmons; Jessica Care Moore, the poet, was out in Bali with Russell Simmons.
These are beloved and revered and adored and revered Black girls. Taraji [P. Henson] has been out to Bali with Russell Simmons, and he all the time posts these photos. So what message does that ship to the survivors? Black girls again right here who’re like, “What about us? I assumed you stood with Black girls.” Not simply his survivors, however different survivors who supported this, who’re like, “Lastly, someone like Russell Simmons may be held accountable.” You don’t assume that may occur to Diddy? After all it will probably.
I may definitely see a world the place he wins his circumstances, settles all of the civil fits, goes quiet, comes again with a monster album or produces some monster album, and does a few tasks; spreads some cash round to some good causes, rehabilitates this factor, and in 2027, it’s love, love, love, love, and it’s, “Oh, he paid his debt to society, y’all.” And I’m really not against a pathway again for anyone. The issue is when the pathway again excludes the folks you harmed.
I say this on a regular basis: Sexual violence occurs on the spectrum, so accountability ought to occur on the spectrum. What most survivors [and] individuals who help this motion are in search of is accountability. You need us to help you and purchase your merchandise, and we made you these hundreds of thousands and hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, so there’s a degree of accountability that claims, “I took your belief in who I used to be presupposed to be.”
And Diddy, particularly, set himself out as a job mannequin for Black folks. He’s like, “I really like my folks. I need y’all to vote. I need y’all to be good folks. I need y’all to go to highschool. I need you to have companies.” So that you set your self out as a job mannequin, and you’ve got destroyed that.