R&B artist Keyshia Cole recently went back and forth with social media users who disagreed with singer’s stance on the R. Kelly sex scandal.
Cole got into somewhat of a heated debate with a fan who retweeted one of her statuses from January, indicating that the parents of R. Kelly‘s accusers were obligated to protect their children from the alleged pedophile.
“Until your child is 18. they are YOUR responsibility… I never said R Kelly wasn’t wrong!!! But a lot starts AT HOME WITH YOUR PARENTS!! PERIOD,” the “Love” musician wrote on Jan 7.
@keyshiacole Twitter
In a now deleted post written by a fan who reposted Cole’s two-month old tweet on March 10, the person indicated that all parents, including the ones of R. Kelly accusers, wouldn’t purposely place their daughters in harm’s way.
Another Twitter user named “You Really Want to Know” who seemingly agreed with the person’s deleted tweet and expressed that parents don’t just willingly hand their children over to alleged abusers.
“Ppl do protect their kids. Look at all the girls who are kidnapped, raped, missing etc. no parents is like hey take my kid so I can’t find them,” the commenter tweeted. “Kids can run away,lie about where they are. All parents do the best they can. You never know what creeps are out there. Period.”
@youreallywantoknow
Cole replied back to the person on March 11 saying, “I’m sorry to inform you sweetie. But, ALL PARENTS DONT PROTECT THEIR KIDS.”
Another fan who agreed with Cole chimed in on the debate and wrote, “That’s like saying all parents are responsible @KeyshiaCole wtf is they saying sis 😒.”
@keyshiacole Twitter
The Oakland native retweeted the fan’s post with the face-palm emoji.
Earlier this year, following the release of Lifetime’s documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” rapper Master P. said the parents of Kelly’s accusers also deserved blame for not doing more to bring their children home.
“The truth is I don’t like the parents,” said the No Limit rapper. “Those parents shouldn’t have let that go that far. If you got love for your kids, you are going to war behind your kids. You ain’t doing no reality show.”
Cole didn’t go in depth with her statement, but she did agree with P’s stance that the children should’ve been protected more.
“But as parents, man, some people gotta do better at protecting their children,” she wrote. “I get what P was saying.”
The 37-year-old mother caught backlash from fans who felt the blame should’ve been solely put on Kelly and not the parents. She later clarified that regardless of who was to blame, there was no justification for anyone to hurt a child.
“I’m not judging anyone and definitely not making excuses for a pedophile,” she wrote. “God sees all things and no human [is] exempt.”
On Feb. 25, R. Kelly plead not guilty to 10 counts of felony aggravated sexual abuse involving four alleged victims, three of whom were younger than 17. He continues to deny all allegations at this time.
