R. Kelly May Be ‘Canceled’ Now. But Our Willful Blindness Helped Enable Him.
Be seen watching.
As a teacher at an urban charter school, this is a phrase I have heard all too often in regards to supporting academic achievement and positive classroom management. The phrase is borrowed from a popular educational text and invokes the image of the ways in which lifeguards effectively scan and monitor large swimming pools to spot and immediately respond to danger. I have long internalized this idea as not only a teacher but also as a parent and firmly believe that most trouble, though certainly not all, can be avoided if those of us placed in charge of others are simply seen watching and actively responding to trouble.
As I sat through the Surviving R. Kelly series over the course of this weekend, my mind was plagued with countless tough questions. For me, it almost seemed pointless to contemplate the answers, considering so much had been allowed to happen for so long. My questions in and of themselves felt too little, too late. For myself, as well as close friends, family and colleagues, this series has been troubling to say the very least. But in trying to pinpoint specifically why this information, well-known, well-circulated, and frequently joked about in the black community for 20+ years, now was ushering in a newfound wave of despair and disgust, I could only think back to that educational phrase: Be seen watching.