#StopCheyB Because Promoting Unhealthy Sexual Behavior to Black Women is Wrong

At For Harriet, I try not to engage the faux-lationship experts too often. Save for the occasional editorial, I ignore the  foolishness. But tonight, a series of tweets from Chey B left me shocked and disgusted. I expect a man who wants to make a living off of the perceived desperation of Black women to promote antiquated gender roles and tired stereotypes, but Chey B's rant against women who carry condoms was irresponsible. Women making an effort to protect themselves against the wide range of STDs should not be villified. They do not deserve to be called hoes. If you care about Black women, you should care about the messages you send us. You should care about our health and know our history.

Who knows how closely Chey B's 30,000 Twitter followers pay attention to his tweets. The chance that he convinced a single young woman not to take proactive steps to protect herself, is enough for me to feel compelled to call out this potentially fatal ignorance.

Chey B clearly doesn't care that he's putting young women's lives at risk. Why would he? There's far more money to be made off of promoting slut hunts than educating young Black women, who happen to have startling rates of infection, about the dangers of unprotected sex.

Chey B and I agree on a small point. Women should not absolve men of responsibility for contraception. Hopefully women demand accountability from their sexual partners. Unfortunately, we know that's not always the case. Chey B ignores the skewed gender dynamics that advantage men in sexual interactions. (That's not surprising. Questioning patriarchy would put his hustle at risk.)  Furthermore, some women just like to have sex and want to protect themselves. But, of course, women who enjoy sex are hos while men who enjoy sex are, well, men.

You see he threw in a bit about "fatherlessness" for good measure.

Chey B doesn't care about Black women. #StopCheyB

Do me a favor. Tweet Mr. B, and ask him to stop peddling ignorance.

The tweet says:

Hey @AskCheyB, stop putting Black women's health at risk! #StopCheyB

And make sure to support The Red Pump Project - an organization that helps educate women about HIV/AIDS.

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Kimberly Foster is the founder and editor of For Harriet. Email or Tweet her.