Leona Lewis describes racist confrontation with a white store owner in London
'It sparked a rage in me'
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Your support makes all the difference.Leona Lewis took to Instagram to share an experience of racism she underwent while shopping on a London high street.
The “Bleeding Love” singer described how she went into a “cute store” she spotted in Fulham after leaving a meeting with her then management team.
“I didn’t realize at the time that all of the other customers were white,” she explained. “Me and my dad were the only black people.”
As the X Factor winner bruised for items for her new home, she noticed that the white store owner was “hovering around” them.
“Eventually, she came up to my dad and I and said, ‘You need to put that stuff down, you’re not allowed to touch it’,” she recalls.
“Every other person was picking stuff up, looking at it. [So] I immediately knew what was happening and I asked her, ‘Why? Everyone else is picking stuff up. Why do we have to put stuff down? We’re just looking at it, I’m probably going to buy it.’”
Recalling what it was like to be singled out and targeted by this woman, Lewis said: “It sparked a rage in me,” says Lewis, taking a steadying breath as she recalls the experience. “I started saying, ‘No, I’m not going to put it down, I’m going to buy it. Why are you targeting us?’
“[By now it was just] me, this woman, and my dad in the store. And… she became really defensive, really agitated, and ran behind the counter. She said she was going to call the police on us if we didn’t leave the store now.”
Lewis described how her Dad managed to calm her down. “My dad has been in positions like this before, she said. “He knew that I needed to make myself smaller. And that just enraged me even more.”
She continued: “[Eventually, he] managed to get me to leave the store. And I sat in the car that was parked around the corner, and I just sobbed, absolutely sobbed.”
The now 35-year-old explained how the store worker apologised, but only after learning that she was a pop star. “She said, ‘I’m so so sorry, I’m so sorry, I didn’t know who you were,’” says Lewis. “And my heart kind of sank.
“[So] I confronted her and said, ‘You’re racist. You’re a racist. You targeted me and my dad, you wanted to throw us out of the store because we’re black. You’re racist.’”
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