Soul artist Erica LeShai has never been shy about voicing her opinions. The gifted singer, songwriter and musician is pro-Black and she wears the title proudly. The ideology permeates her music and her message.
It’s why LeShai was compelled to take to Instagram, where she has over 200,000 followers and do a live video on Tuesday, Feb. 16. The message: “Be mindful of WHO you have sex with” because “Sexual liberation can lead to mistakes and lifelong regret.”
LeShai said she began thinking about the topic after seeing a tweet from news reporter Chevron Summers, who is Black, in which she shared her white husband criticized their daughter’s Black hair.
“This grown man told my 9yo child the hair growing out of her head looked messy and like a weird mushroom. She asked me in her little voice if it’s true and instead of wearing it out today, she put it in ponytail. Now, I have to fight this mfker,” Summers tweeted.
Her ruminations about the subject led LeShai to think about a different topic: the sexual liberation of women. She said today’s culture encourages women to sleep with whomever they want, whenever they want and however many men they want.
LeShai warned of the dangers of embracing this ideology. “You want to go ahead and just have sex with whatever n-ggas that you want to have sex with, then end up pregnant by one of these fools because you was fighting the patriarchy one d—k at a time, go ahead do that … and then you gotta raise a child with a self-hating fool that you had sex with because you was so sexually liberated,” LeShai said.
Just because the trend is popular doesn’t mean it’s personally profitable, LeShai said. “This tends to be a thing happening in our society that’s hella prevalent where we’re telling people to go explore their sexuality and all that kind of stuff, but we’re not telling them what can happen with that,” LeShai said.
In addition to being stuck with a less than ideal parent for your child. LeShai said engaging in unencumbered sexual encounters also exposes people to diseases and glosses over the root causes of bigger problems.
“It was a girl on video talking about she had sex for a double cheeseburger and the girls was like ‘Yasss, sexually liberated.’ I mean, that’s prostitution first of all, that’s not sexual liberation. … And no one cares as to why this girl had to have sex for a cheeseburger,” LeShai said.
She encouraged people “to be more choosy” regardless of their gender. “Whether you’re a man or a woman, it’s not a good look to be out here just sleeping around with a whole bunch of people,” LeShai said. “There’s a lot of ramifications that come with sexual liberation stuff that people are constantly talking about but no one talks about the other end of that.”
Noting she sees a lot of stuff on Twitter that encourages Black women to engage in “crazy behavior,” LeShai admonished young Black women not to listen to older Black women on social media who bash Black men yet encourage them to engage in risky behaviors.
“Why you listening to these bitter negroes? And then the same ones who be sitting up talking about Black men are the weakest link and all that other kind of nonsense, they want to be the same ones who be sexually liberated,” LeShai said. “If Black men are the weakest link and you hate them so much, why you want to have sex with as many of them as you can? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Young ladies, please don’t listen to these old, bitter, dried-up, used-up women on Twitter. Please … on any of these websites or social media because misery loves company,” LeShai begged.
As for any who disagreed with her position, LeShai also had a message for them: “I don’t care if y’all call me a misogynist or a bigot. I said what I said.”
