Comedian and actor Bill Bellamy has always been a well-liked guy. But folks weren’t exactly feeling him on Wednesday when he decided to post a light-hearted yet timely message to Black women. Don’t worry, we’ll explain.
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For context, if you’ve been paying attention to the news recently, you may have seen the heartbreaking story about the death of influencer Ashlee Jenae (legally Ashly Robinson), a Black woman who recently went on a trip to Tanzania with her white fiancé, Joe McCann (he proposed to her while they were there). Sadly, only McCann came back to the States, as Robinson was found unconscious in her hotel room. Her death was eventually ruled a suicide by local authorities. However, Robinson’s family has rejected that as the case, and a formal investigation is now taking place.
As the tragic story has been dominating the news cycle, Bellamy decided to take it upon himself to send out a personal PSA to Black women who find themselves dating white men.
“All my Black sistas out there that’s dating these white boys, stop going on dates with these mothaf*ckas man. I’m just being real, I’m looking out for my sistas, my Wakanda sistas,” he began in a video posted to Instagram. “They going on vacation and only one of them coming back, and it ain’t you, so we not doing that. If you dating a white guy, go to the mall. Go somewhere in the state where other Black people at. Atlanta, go to Chicago. Go to Memphis! They ain’t gon’ act up in Memphis because they got them thangs in Memphis, you understand?”
He concluded by saying that all the “out the country” traveling and posting about their love lives needed to be cut out completely.
“Sit yo ass down in the living room and STOP IT!” he said.
However, while the “Love Jones” star may have been trying to make light of a serious situation, some of his fans and followers weren’t here for it, and instead decided to call him out for making a post about white men killing Black women when another influential Black woman ( Nancy Metayer) was recently allegedly killed by her Black husband). Others even called Bellamy’s own wife’s ethnicity into question.
“Bill Bellamy is not even married to a Black woman and has biracial children. If you really cared about Black women. You would’ve made a post about Nancy Metayor,” wrote one user on Instagram. (For what it’s worth, Bellamy’s wife Kristin’s ethnicity hasn’t been publicized though many claim she’s biracial.)
“I wish this was a joking matter but it’s not! Of the Black women unalived by a partner, 92% of these are committed by Black men against Black women. The PSA needs to be about signs of toxic relationships regardless of race or ethnicity!” said another.
Others online pointed out that the message should be directed at Black men, reminding them to protect Black women.
One other user expressed: “None of them like us nor will protect us. I come from a family of black men including a father that has never protected the girls or women. When harm has occurred they all stood by and watched or said nothing.”
Added another: “Meanwhile, a Black man just m**dered his Black wife and the mother of his two children. It’s men. It’s the patriarchy. Read some bell hooks and heal.”
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