Breaking bridges to the Pied Piper: how Black feminists digitally wreck the legacy of R. Kelly on Ebony.com

While existing scholarship on R. Kelly primarily focuses on hashtag activism via #MuteRKelly, #FastTailedGirls, and #SurvivingRKelly, this essay considers the role of investigative journalism in documenting decades of R. Kelly’s sexual violence against Black women and girls. Using Gwendolyn Pough’s concept “bringing wreck” and Regina Duthely’s expanded version of “digital wreck,” this study analyzes nine articles published from 2013 to 2015 on ebony.com, the digital version of the Black-oriented magazine Ebony. In response to R. Kelly’s reentry into hip-hop, I argue that Black feminist bloggers as journalists aimed to digitally wreck patriarchy and capitalism through their rhetorical strategies on ebony.com. This project performs an interface analysis of ebony.com in conjunction with a rhetorical critique of these editorial attacks against the artist. It demonstrates how Black feminists engage in radical acts of blame to digitally wreck public sentiments towards abusive celebrities within the space of commodified news organizations. There are three types of digital wrecking practiced by Black feminists on ebony.com: expressing marginality, blaming misogynoir agents and practices, and reimagining Black culture by challenging sexual violence.