Black community influencers, Maura Chanz, Andrea Lewis, Darnell Moore and Ashley Blaine Featherson sat down with Alencia Johnson, Director of Public Engagement at Planned Parenthood, to discuss their personal stories on sex education and reproductive health care.

Featherson spoke about her introduction to Planned Parenthood when she moved to Los Angeles. She was introduced to the nonprofit organization by a friend.

“I was 22,” Featherson said. “I was an actress trying to start her career and I didn’t have health insurance.”

Featherson added, “I was always personally real versed in my own sexual reproductive and reproductive health, but I knew that I still needed to go to the doctor to get tests and pap smears and things of that nature. So I’ve always been a huge advocate for Planned Parenthood.”

The influencers and Johnson also spoke about the barriers that exist in the culture around talking about sex, our bodies and being comfortable openly expressing our thoughts on reproductive health care.

Lewis grew up in a West Indian family. She recalls not having the conversation about sex. Talking about the topic is very taboo in her family. You figure it out on your own was the influence passed down to her.

“I discovered Planned Parenthood with a friend,” Lewis said. “I cannot recall a moment with my mom or somebody like that being like ‘you can go here’ [Planned Parenthood]. Like that never happened to me and I know for sure my grandmother–nobody would have kind of done that to me and that’s just how I was raised.”

Chanz thinks the historical context of the black community being hypersexualized and the notion of being “fast” in our community has contributed to us not being comfortable discussing the topic.  

“Because black people were looked at as already being less than, folk did as much as they could to prevent that idea from being understood as a reality,” Moore said.

“It has everything to do again with a type of idea that is white racial supremacy. That is sexism. That is patriarchy. That is homoantagonism that tells us that black folk ought to be this way. You also model yourself after white people who don't even model themselves after themselves,” Moore added.

Watch the video above to see the discussion in action and share your thoughts with us in the comments below.