If the inner object is inheriting properties you don't want, you can always set them to what you do want (ie - the properties are cascading, and so you can overwrite them at the lower level).
e.g.
.li-a {
font-weight: bold;
color: red;
}
.li-b {
color: blue;
}
In this case, "li-b" will still be bold even though you don't want it to be. To make it not bold you can do:
.li-b {
font-weight: normal;
color: blue;
}