Solange pens a stirring essay on being black in 'white spaces'

Singer Solange Knowles has published a powerful essay on her site, about the frequent discomfort people of colour feel when their behaviour is "othered" in public. The piece was inspired by an incident at a New Orleans Kraftwerk concert, at which she says "four older white women" yelled at her to "sit down" while she was dancing and eventually threw a lime at her.

Solange tweeted her account of the event on Twitter, and although a bunch of tweets have since been deleted (but can be read here), her essay stands alone as an impactful account of "why many black people are uncomfortable being in predominately white spaces."

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She writes, "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.' Loud enough for you to hear. This leads you to believe they were saying things way worse than what you heard, but you are not surprised at that part one bit."

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"You and your friends have been called the N word, been approached as prostitutes, and have had your hair touched in a predominately white bar just around the corner from the same venue," she writes.

"You'd like to use the classic 'I have many white friends' line to prove that you do not dislike white people but dislike the way that many white people are constantly making you feel. To combat headlines like 'Solange feels uncomfortable with white people' but know that there is no amount of explaining that you will do to get through to this type of person in the first place."

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Despite the disturbing encounter, the singer concludes it on a positive note, writing "After you think it all over, you know that the biggest payback you could ever had (after, go figure, they then decided they wanted to stand up and dance to songs they liked) was dancing right in front of them with my hair swinging from left to right, my beautiful black son and husband, and our dear friend Rasheed jamming the hell out with the rhythm our ancestors blessed upon us saying…We belong. We belong. We belong. We built this.”

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