I always thought Erykah Badu was about the empowerment and uplifting of women, though I can’t remember her explicitly saying that. It just seemed to fit with her neo soul brand and telling her recent ex to call Tyrone.

But now I know she’s been fooling me all along.

Recently, I’m not sure of the date, Erykah Badu said on stage, after all of us that matter have seen Lifetime’s six-part documentary, Surviving R. Kelly, discussing in excruciating detail how R.Kelly has been raping and sexually, physically and mentally abusing mostly young Black girls and women for decades, that she’s “putting up a prayer for R.” She also said, “…if he’s done all those things that we’ve seen on TV and heard those ladies talk about. I hope he sees the light of day and comes forward.”

Soooo, guess the fuck what?! I will never as long as I’m on God’s beautiful, green earth pray for a pedophile or a rapist. Now some of you may say, “Well, if you’re really a Christian, shouldn’t you pray for him?” NOPE! I don’t anticipate EVER praying for anything relating to Rapist Kelly, but if I did, I would pray that he gets sentenced to life in prison for his crimes. As my grandmother would say, “They need to put him under the jail!” And if Jesus has a problem with how I feel, he can take it up with me when he comes back.

Furthermore, you’ll notice Erykah said, “if he’s done all those things we’ve seen on TV…” First of all, his sexual and emotional abuse and rape of a fourteen-year-old girl are on tape. A tape Erykah Badu may or may not have seen, but at the very least, knows exists. So by using the word “if,” Erykah is letting us know not only does she not believe the women who spoke out about being abused by R. Kelly, she doesn’t believe something that can be proven with incontrovertible evidence.

I could say I don’t know why Erykah wouldn’t believe these women, and yeah, I don’t know for certain why she doesn’t believe them, but I have a pretty good guess. She doesn’t believe them because she has been socialized as a member of the Black community to always side with a Black man when he’s been “persecuted,” even if that “persecution” comes at the hands of Black women. Chance the Rapper somewhat spoke to this in the video clip where he says he didn’t believe Rapist Kelly’s victims because they’re Black women.

Here’s the problem with your “logic” Chance: if you didn’t want to believe Rapist Kelly’s victims because you’ve been socialized to think most “persecutions” of Black men are unfounded, the fact that almost all of Rapist Kelly’s victims are Black girls or women should have made you more likely to believe them because they know how oppressive it is to be Black in America!! Like, I can’t even with him. I get that he apologized, but I’m good on him for awhile.

And until she sees the error of her ways, I’m good on Erykah Badu too.