Solange Knowles on what it’s like to be black ‘in predominantly white spaces’

Solange Knowles first described what happened in a series of tweets. She and her husband took her son and son’s friend to a Kraftwerk concert in New Orleans on Friday, where they were among very few black audience members. The adults wanted to expose the kids to an important band that influenced hip-hop, and Knowles began dancing to a song sampled by Jay Z.

Soon, a group of older white women yelled at Knowles to sit down, and then threw a half-eaten lime at her, Knowles tweeted.

The singer and sister of Beyoncé has since deleted the tweets she fired off chronicling what took place. But the incident was emblematic of a bigger problem, according to Knowles, so she penned an essay on her site “for those who want to make this about ‘being asked to sit down at a concert’.”

Knowles wrote about microaggressions and “why many black people are uncomfortable being in predominately white spaces.”

Knowles ticked off a series of examples of people using an aggressive tone while assuming that she, her family and friends didn’t belong where they were (her friend being mistaken as a porter; being told she’s mistakenly in the first-class line; a train agent rudely demanding to see her and her mother’s passports, but no one else’s; having her hair touched; hearing her third-grade teacher explain to the class “what a n—– is”).

“You don’t feel that most of the people in these incidents do not like black people, but simply are a product of their white supremacy and are exercising it on you without caution, care, or thought,” Knowles wrote. “Many times the tone just simply says, ‘I do not feel you belong here.’ ”

Other famous African Americans have gone public about similar experiences. Just last week, actress Zendaya said she was rudely refused service by a store clerk because of her race. There was the infamous Hermes-Oprah incident, in which arguably the world’s most famous woman was apparently barred from making a last-minute purchase in a French store while other shoppers milled about. Then there is the president of the United States, who has said he’s been followed in a department store, heard car doors lock as he walked by and pulled over by police when he didn’t deserve it.

In many of these high-profile incidents, the actions and words directed at black people do not include specific mentions of race. Assigning a racial motivation is not always clear cut: It is not like being called a slur, when the bias is overt. Many celebrities who’ve spoken about subtle slights have been accused of “playing the race card” and injecting racism where it doesn’t exist.

But, Knowles writes, a lifetime of having these experiences has shown her when racial undertones are at play. She wrote that she has lived a part of her life in “predominately white spaces.”

About the concert incident, Knowles writes in the second person: “You realize that you never called these women racists, but people will continuously put those words in your mouth.”

“You read headlines that say, ‘Solange feels uncomfortable with white people,’ and want to use the classic ‘I have many white friends’ or ‘Half of my wedding guests were white’ line’ to prove that you do not dislike white people but dislike the way that many white people are constantly making you feel,” she writes. “Yet you know no amount of explaining will get you through to this type of person in the first place.”

According to Knowles, her family was in their box seats dancing to “The Hall of Mirrors,” which she had earlier played for her son in the car, when the women threw trash at her, in front of the 11-year-old and his friend.

One of the women told her husband, Alan Ferguson, “I just want to make it clear, I was not the one who yelled those horrible, nasty, things at you,” Knowles wrote, leading her to believe the group had said worse things than what she heard. Knowles wrote that the women got up and danced later in the concert.

Frustrated, Knowles tweeted. She then later explained the inevitable backlash she expected.

“You know when you share this that a part of the population is going to side with the women who threw trash at you. You know that they will come up with every excuse to remove that huge part of the incident and make this about you standing up at a concert ‘blocking someone’s view,’ ” Knowles wrote in the essay. “You do not care in that moment because you understand that many of your followers will understand and have been through this same type of thing many times, and if it means them hearing you say it’s ok, you will rise again throughout these moments, then it means something bigger to you.”

And indeed, a number of people — including celebrities — have tweeted that they deeply related to Knowles. She was not alone.

Copyright: Washington Post