Taraji P. Henson attempted to have a "woke" moment on social media which undoubtedly backfired in her face. The actress faced backlash after she tried to compare the public's treatment of R. Kelly and Harvey Weinstein, but was quickly reminded that the point went over her head completely.
Taraji P. Henson shared several since-deleted posts on her Instagram Story comparing the #MuteRKelly hashtag to the #MuteHarveyWeinstein hashtag. Many quickly reminded Henson that R. Kelly is a musician, thus making it feasible to mute him while Weinstein is a film executive who sits behind the scenes. However, many also revealed that Weinstein is actually facing charges for his alleged sex crimes while Kellz only has a hashtag so far.
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Henson took to Twitter shortly after facing backlash for her post. "LET ME BE CLEAR R. KELLY IS GUILTY AND WRONG AND SHOULD BE MUTED PERIOD!!!!," she wrote.
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Henson undoubtedly received an overwhelming amount of backlash for the post, but there were a few others who were a bit more empathetic to the point she was trying to make. One person pointed out that Henson is an actress in the film industry and the impact of Weinstein's actions have more of an impact on her than R. Kelly.
Henson's comments faced similar backlash to those of Erykah Badu who appeared to have defended Kellz at a concert. Badu later took to Twitter to clarify her tweets, which also faced public scrutiny. "I love you. Unconditionally. That doesn’t mean I support your poor choices. I want healing for you and anyone you have hurt as a result of you being hurt," she wrote.