Drea Kelly is calling out and highlighting the alleged colorism in domestic violence, comparing and contrasting the support the public has given to her, Keke Palmer, and Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
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While appearing on the October 23 episode of ‘Uplifting Moments with D’George Hines,’ Drea Kelly opened up about the alleged abuse she endured at the hands of disgraced R&B legend R. Kelly. However, during the interview, she insists, “Ain’t nothing alleged about what I went through.”
Kelly recalled her own abuse and then got into the headlines that Palmer made with her ex-boyfriend and child’s father, Darius Jackson, while comparing it Cassie’s headlines with Sean “Diddy” Combs.
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Kelly insisted that despite video showing Palmer’s then-boyfriend assaulting her and throwing her over a couch in her own home, the public appeared to cry harder for Cassie after video surfaced of Diddy dragging and beating her in a hotel hallway.
Before speaking on the domestic violence support given to herself, Palmer, Cassie, and Diddy’s other ex-girlfriend Kim Porter, Kelly finished up a conversation about her and R. Kelly. She said:
“Until I came out, when people saw the [‘Surviving R. Kelly‘] documentary, up until that point, I had never spoken his name, never said that it was him. People, again, don’t do their research. If you go back and you search, I had a restraining order against him 10 years before any of this ever came out.
You can Google it right now and go to MTV News. Matt Lauder, I think was his name. He put it on MTV News that I had a restraining order against him and people chose to play—they wanted to have a blind eye. They didn’t want to believe it. They didn’t want to hear it. They didn’t want to see it. So, for all the people who say, why is she just coming out now? I didn’t. You didn’t pay attention. That’s not my fault. You decided not to pay attention.”
Kelly then responds to a question asking if social media made domestic violence a bigger discussion now versus years ago. In that questions was a mention her “alleged abuse,” leaving her to quip:
“Well, I’mma clear that up because I know you have to say ‘allegedly.’ But, ain’t nothing alleged about what I went through. But, I understand and no offense to you. But, to the ones who want to play in my face, he gets to say, ‘allegedly.'”
Drea Kelly Calls Out Colorism And Compares Domestic Violence Support Given To Her, Keke Palmer, And Kim Porter Versus That Given To Cassie
Kelly continued to drop her bombshell statement. She compared the support she received from the public, along with that for Keke Palmer and Kim Porter versus that for Cassie. She said:
“But, yeah, social media has brought it to the forefront. I just want to say this—and I need us as a community not to be offended when I say it—but, let’s wake up and take our blinders off when I say this.
It’s really amazing to me that women like myself could come forward. Keke Palmer can come forward—with a whole video of her getting flipped over an entire couch. But when you look like Cassie, we pay attention. Okay? So, we need to start being real, real as a community. We pick and choose who we want to celebrate and advocate for based even upon the way they look.
Did we advocate for Kim Porter in the same way? Did we advocate for Keke Palmer in the same way? Did we advocate for Andrea Kelly in the same way? Because I’ve seen so many celebrities come forward, ‘#Cassie, we love you. We’re here for you.’ Where was the hashtags for Keke? Where was the hashtags for Drea? And the ones that even came before me. Thank God Tina Turner did not tell her story in this day and age of social media. Because you better believe two things can be true at one time.
And people need to realize as a community, y’all love the persona. Us as women, we deal with the person. And you’re never going to know that person the way we do. You’re not meant to. Because there’s a bigger machine that even pushes them. There’s a machine behind them that pushes the persona. But they also help to cover up, hide, and bury things that they do as a person. And until we become very aware and want to be educated like that, it’s never going to change.
But again, we need to take colorism out of it and we need to educate ourselves because that blew my mind to me. I thought, now here we are. We’re all coming together and all these celebrities and we should celebrate her and we should support her. That is not what I’m saying at all. But then we need to step back and look and go, ‘Y’all, we didn’t do that for Keke, did we? We didn’t do that for Drea, did we?’
But again, our own community, we got to deal with that demon. We got to deal with that thing in us. And I don’t know how we do it. All I know is that I have to open my mouth and you might not like what’s coming out of it. But, most of the time we don’t like truth.”
Kelly then answered a question about whether or not she deemed herself “healed.” She said:
“Very much so, but I don’t think healed is a real word. I feel like I’m healing every day. Every day. Because you know what? I’m not 60 yet, so I don’t know what’s coming around the corner at 60. I don’t know if Lil’ Drea is going to come around that corner at 60 and be like, ‘Remember the Easter 89?’ I don’t know. I don’t know what that trauma is coming around that corner. I don’t know what next week holds. I don’t know who I’m going to lose.”
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