#FreeKeshaNow

To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Alex Baker. I am currently a young professional in higher education. It is with deep regret that I am contacting you all urging you to take action with the legal battles that is happening (publicly for over a year now) between Kesha Sebert and Lukasz Gottwald.

Working in higher education, I get the privilege and opportunity to work with so many creative, talented, successful, artistic, determined, amazing, intelligent, and ambitious college students from all walks of life. Regardless of the backgrounds that these students come from, they all certainly have one thing in common; the ability to decide.

Each and every student that walks this campus has the ability to decide many things each day. Which shoes to wear, how much effort they put into their homework, how many times they smile, how much they will pay attention during the upcoming lecture…all of which impacts them (even if they don’t know it yet.) These are life lessons that I hope to help coach them in, but these are not the decisions I’m concerned about currently.

One of the biggest decisions that someone can make on a college campus is the decision to speak up and out against what is wrong. If someone is being bullied, every student that passes makes a conscious decision to say stop or ignore it. If someone is being threatened, every student that has knowledge of this makes a conscious decision to get an official involved or to ignore it. If someone is saying they’ve been raped, every student that knows, the victim, the rapist, or anyone else that is made aware makes a conscious decision of speaking out and against this, contacting the police, or to just ignore it.

I bet you’re wondering what the purpose of this is? Allow me to explain. You have been made aware of these allegations. You have been told what has happened between these two. YOU HAVE THE ABILITY TO SPEAK OUT AND AGAINST THIS AND PUT A STOP TO IT, or you can continue to ignore it. It is 2015, and it is long overdue that we stand together and put a stop to the rape culture that is present all across the world. You could be them victim one day, your children could be the victim one day…what would you hope the people that are made aware of it do?

So what does this have to with the college students that I get to work with? You have made it very clear that you, your team, and your company Sony Music do not care about the wellbeing of the artists you work with by staying silent. While you haven’t endorsed this behavior, your inability to act has made it apparent that you are not NOT against it. By not supporting your artists in this time of crisis, you are making it very difficult for my artists to come forward. You have shown the amazing humans that I work with what happens when you build up enough courage to speak out. You have shown my people that sometimes, like with Kesha, making the decision to speak up is sometimes even more challenging than the assault itself.

I ask that you please take a stand and do something and show the world that sexual assault and rape will not be tolerated. Until you do so, you are sending a message as bright as the sun that we will continue to accept this behavior. The next time a student of mine comes to me and confides in me a sexual assault or rape, I will keep you all in the back of my head. Not because I admire the action you’ve taken, but so I can remember exactly how not to handle the situation. Until you take a stand, I believe in the message that #SonyMusicSupportsRape