Sparkle Calls Out Erykah Badu and Taraji P. Henson Over R. Kelly Comparison and Comments: “It Was Just Disheartening As a Black Woman To Another Black Woman”

Sparkle, R.Kelly’s former protégé and one of the first to speak out against the R&B legend, is not here for anyone with weak and dismissive responses to R. Kelly’s alleged history of abuse against young and underage girls. In fact, in the wake of the recent backlash against Erykah Badu and Taraji P. Henson over their own statements and comparisons, Sparkle took to social media to call out the two for the problematic commentary. 

To start, the singer tackled Badu’s statement, in which she offered a prayer up for the singer and encouraged fans to love, in spite of. 

“I love Erykah Badu as well, but, however, I think her working…we have to be very sensitive when it comes to this issue right now,” Sparkle said. “There are girls who are still out here who want to speak up, who won’t speak up because of stuff like this. And because of people like her, who are saying, ‘We need to love’ – look, this is far past that.” 

“We now need to offer him some tough love,” Sparkle said. “And some community love as a black community, I will say. Because we, too often, are very forgiving and we will forgive a person the next morning if they’re saying, ‘Oh, i’m sorry.’ No. Get some help, you need some help. You know you need some help.” 

As Sparkle continued, she addressed Henson’s attempt to shed light on Harvey Weinstein’s allegations amid the R. Kelly controversy, which many believed to be an unnecessary comparison. 

“Why are we comparing,” Sparkle said. “Abuser, abuser is an abuser. Weinstein is up for a rape charge, and R. Kelly is – hopefully do the same. Be up for something”

“It was just disheartening as a black woman to another black woman to do the comparison thing, and to kinda just whatever with the victims almost,” Sparkle said. “If we need to take everything down, let’s take it all down. I would sacrifice that.”

Since then, Badu has reached out to Sparkle, and the two have reportedly come to an understanding. Additionally, Henson clarified her own actions in a twitter post, saying, ”Let me be clear, R. Kelly is guilty and wrong and should be muted. Period!!”

 

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A post shared by Baller Alert (@balleralert) on Jan 28, 2019 at 12:38pm PST