Former Love & Hip Hop: Miami cast member Erica Mena thoroughly addressed the “blue monkey” controversy that ruined her reputation in the second part of her interview with Carlos King.
Published on YouTube on Oct. 31, Erica touched on the racial comment she hurled at ex-castmate Spice during a heated argument. Overly emphasizing that she never intended to be “racial” with her “blue monkey” remark nor harm anyone, including the Black community, Carlos informed the actress that Black viewers notice how she only used racist insults toward Black people.
“But you do see why people feel like you say it to these Black people,” Carlos asked the 35-year-old mother of three.
“It’s just a coincidence, but it’s not that,” Erica explained, implying she never intended to be racist. “And that’s why I’m like, ‘Fuck,’ because it just so happens to be a coincidence that it is. But I’ve definitely called my sister a ‘monkey’ before. It’s a word that I use to insult someone or be playful. Never with [the] intention of being racial or that.”
She continued, “I’m raised, in my family alone; I’m blended. There’s not a racial bone in my body. Now that it’s out there, it has me very mindful, like obviously I cannot ever say this again.”
With tears welling up in her eyes, Erica told Carlos this incident had taught her and would prevent her from fucking up again.
The host also candidly spoke about Latinas who slept with or dated Black men despite hating Black women. Erica deflected, stating Latinas caught shit, too, expressing that the group got stereotyped as homewreckers.
The fired reality star boiling her referring to Black people as monkeys down to a coincidence would’ve slid if there weren’t receipts of her targeting other Black people with the word.
Per an Urban Belle post, a Cleveland, Ohio, club promoter claimed the Puerto Rican and Dominican reality star called Black club promoters “Black monkeys” after she failed to complete her duties inscribed in a contract she signed, like appearing at a club in January 2015 for a party thrown by the promoter. The party required her presence from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m. Erica ultimately drove off with the money the club paid her without following through with the job, using the driver they hired to return to the hotel. Once the promoters arrived at the hotel, Erica went off and spewed racial slurs.
“I don’t like working with these Black monkeys,” Erica reportedly said. “I don’t usually do business with these Black monkeys.”
She directly called the club promoters “Black, broke monkeys” and “fucking monkeys” in the hotel while police were present.
The moment the promoter began recording her, Erica flipped a switch and ended her racist tirade.
In 2014, Erica had beef with former Love & Hip Hop: New York star Jhonni Blaze and called her a “monkey” on social media, writing “Still Monkey Mad.”
Blaze clapped back with, “You met your match besides calling me a monkey or delusional stripper that twerks.”
And now she’s fired from LHHM for repeating that coincidence on national television. So, how many coincidences need to happen before they’re no longer coincidences?
She admitted to repetitively using “monkey” to insult people. They just so coincidentally happen to be Black people, the same minority group racists have compared these animals to for years.
Many have defended Erica and backed her claims that her calling Spice a monkey had no racial intent precisely because she’s a minority herself. But colorist microaggressions may play into Erica’s similar recent and past actions.
No, not racial microaggressions, but colorist microaggressions.
Racial microaggressions usually occur between two different races, and, according to the American Psychological Association, they could be so subtle that the aggressor and victim don’t grasp what happened.
But, unlike racial microaggressions, colorist microaggressions go beyond the Black and white margins. As Dr. Sarah L. Webb, founder of Colorism Healing, stated, “Colorism is also a source of microaggressions. And it happens across races as well as between people of the same race.”
This isn’t to say colorist microaggressions absolutely played a part in Erica’s actions, but there’s a possibility, especially since she has a history of calling dark-skinned Black people monkeys.
The racially-ambiguous 34-year-old reality star is Latina, but where she stands on race is hit or miss. She also profits from her proximity to Blackness despite possibly harboring anti-Black sentiments.
As Dash Harris said, anti-Black sometimes surfaces in situations when a Black man chooses the unequivocally Black woman over the non-Black “exotic” woman. In Spice and Erica’s heated argument during the Aug. 29 episode, it was clear the 34-year-old mom was jealous that her ex-husband, Safaree, showed much concern toward Spice’s near-death experience. Erica tried to minimize Spice’s trauma by comparing her childbirth to Spice’s nightmare ruptured hernia.
