She told one story of being hit on the back of the head with a lime at a concert.
Last night, singer and model Solange Knowles wrote a blog detailing the ways her family have suffered and been discriminated against all because of their colour.
Despite being a sister to one of the biggest performers in the world, Solange wrote about the ways people have disrespected and showed ignorance towards her son, mother and husband and explained why she is sick and tired of the racism many white people show towards her.
She wrote about the way people have treated her and friends in airports…
“The tone.
It’s the same one that says to your friend, “BOY…. go on over there and hand me my bag” at the airport, assuming he’s a porter.
It’s the same one that tells you, “m’am, go into that other line over there” when you are checking in at the airport at the first class counter before you even open up your mouth.”
She also spoke of how staff on trains have spoken to her mother Tina in an aggressive way
“It’s the same one that yells and screams at you and your mother in your sleep when you’re on the train from Milan to Basel “give me your passport NOW.” You look around to see if anyone else is being requested this same thing only to see a kind Italian woman actually confront the agents on your behalf and ask why you are being treated this way.
It’s the same tone that the officer has when she tells you your neighborhood is blocked for residents only as you and your friends drive home from a Mardi Gras parade, when you have a residents tag on your car. You’ve been in the car line for 10 minutes and watched them let every one else pass without stopping them at all…
Many times the tone just simply says, “I do not feel you belong here.”
She also divulged a shocking story about attending a Kraftwerk concert with her son and husband, where they were rudely accosted by women standing behind them.
You get there about 10 minutes late, but lucky for you, as soon as you walk to your box seats, the song that you just played for your son in the car is on! It’s a song his uncle sampled, ” The Hall of Mirrors.” You haven’t even sat down yet because you just walked to your seat and you’re so excited to dance to this DANCE MUSIC SONG.
Simultaneously, a much older black venue attendant comes over to your son and his friend and yells “No electronic cigarettes allowed, you need to stop doing that now!”
You are too into the groove and let your husband handle it and tell the attendant that the children are 11 years old, and it’s actually the two grown white men in front of you guys who were smoking them.
About 20 seconds later, you hear women yell aggressively, “Sit down now, you need to sit down right now” from the box behind you. You want to be considerate, however, they were not at all considerate with their tone, their choice of words, or the fact that you just walked in and seem to be enjoying yourself.
You feel something heavy hit you on the back of your shoulder, but consider that you are imagining things because well….certainly a stranger would not have the audacity.
Moments later, you feel something again, this time smaller, less heavy, and your son and his friend tell you those ladies just hit you with a lime.
You look down only to see the half eaten lime on the ground below you.
You inhale deeply. Your husband calmly asks the group of women did they just throw trash at you. One woman says, “I just want to make it clear, I was not the one who yelled those horrible, nasty, things at you.”
Outlining her feelings of being uncomfortable in white spaces, Solange was praised and congratulated on Twitter for her honesty in the blog, originally posted on SaintHeron.
Yes yes yes.
Go AWF, @solangeknowles ✊?✊? ⚡️ “Solange Knowles lets the world know why she belongs”https://t.co/OiH0EUiD82
— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) September 12, 2016
https://t.co/xDbxVpJFha I can relate to everything @solangeknowles experienced. This is real & it happens everyday. We are not making it up
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) September 11, 2016
Thank you @solangeknowles for writing this. Thank you for standing up. Thank you for dancing. We deserve space. https://t.co/vi6fkoSUNP
— Zach Stafford (@ZachStafford) September 11, 2016
