Church group files complaint against Carnival Cruise Line for playing R. Kelly's music
Members of a Scotland-based church group clashed with a Carnival cruise ship DJ, who they claim ruined their trip when he refused to stop playing music by R. Kelly. Unsatisfied with the company’s response to the incident, the group has now filed an official complaint.
The Rev. Teri Peterson of The Church of Scotland told the Scotsman that she and several other clergywomen were aboard the Carnival Magic liner cruising through Miami when they heard Kelly’s music coming from the ship’s nightclub. Outraged, she and her friends approached the DJ and asked him to turn it off “because of everything surrounding the singer.”
Kelly has been the subject of sexual abuse allegations for many years. Surviving R. Kelly, a documentary released in January, shined a renewed spotlight on the performer’s alleged transgressions, prompting new calls for boycotts and criminal investigations.
When asked by the church group members to stop playing Kelly’s songs, the DJ “refused and then began singing and dancing along and mocking us,” Peterson said. Then when the women ran into the DJ in a different part of the cruise ship, she said, he made fun of them again.
The reverend was on the ship with more than 60 fellow members of RevGalBlogPals, an international online community for female clergy, ministers, and community leaders, for which Peterson is an office bearer. Peterson said that once she returned home, she spent five days emailing the company and even communicated her gripes in meetings with the cruise ship’s management.
In a statement shared with Yahoo Lifestyle, the church group said of the trip:
“We showed up for camaraderie, for rigorous study … and — as individuals who accompany countless others through celebrations and trauma alike while navigating the complexities that arise in our own lives — we showed up for respite. Unfortunately, for 9 of us who identify as Black women, our time aboard the Carnival Magic was colored by our experiences of taunting and discrimination at the hand of the ship’s employees.”
Then they described approaching the DJ, Bl4ck Zoe. “When we all gathered around the DJ Bl4ck Zoe’s booth to request that he change the music, he laughed at us all, shrugged his shoulders, began singing and dancing, and refused to honor our request.”
The cruise ship staff offered her a $100 onboard credit, she said, but no apology. Management also sent a letter to the church leaders, which they shared with Yahoo Lifestyle. It read:
“We had a small group of guests who took issue with two songs that our DJ was playing in a nightclub well after midnight. While we only play radio versions of popular music that have been sanitized so that offensive language has been removed, we do not make a habit of banning music as we have a broad cross section of guests. Our shipboard team listened to the concerns of these guests and provided a goodwill gesture. We are proud of the many ways we’ve been recognized for our commitment to diversity and inclusion and every day we work to make sure our guests and crew feel welcome and part of the Carnival family. We’re sorry this group feels otherwise.”
A spokesperson for Carnival added, “Our employees come from more than 150 countries around the world, so diversity is a hallmark across all our cruise brands.”
For Peterson and her fellow clergywomen, this is not enough.
“The response from Carnival makes me really angry,” she told the Scotsman.
A spokesperson for Carnival explained the company’s stance in a statement to the newspaper.
“We had a small group of guests who took issue with two songs that our DJ was playing in a nightclub well after midnight,” the spokesperson said. “While we only play radio versions of popular music that have been sanitized so that offensive language has been removed, we do not make a habit of banning music as we have a broad cross-section of guests. Our shipboard team listened to the concerns of these guests and provided a goodwill gesture. We are proud of the many ways we’ve been recognized for our commitment to diversity and inclusion, and every day we work to make sure our guests and crew feel welcome and part of the Carnival family. We’re sorry this group feels otherwise.”
But Peterson is still holding out for a resolution. “They had so many chances to do better and do the right thing, but they made it worse,” she said. “We want Carnival to first of all apologize for a significant customer service failure and to make sure that there are better choices in their music and entertainment lineup. Also to update their training so that this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”
She also said in the group’s statement that the clergywomen requested that Bl4ck Zoe be “removed from his duties.”
Yahoo Lifestyle has reached out to Carnival Cruise Line for comment.
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