USAToday.com--R&B singer Kelis has lashed out at the British after experiencing racial hostility at a London airport.
The Milkshake hitmaker, was heading home to America after performing at the Bestival music festival on the Isle of Wight at the weekend (11Sep11), when she was taunted for appearing to cut a line at Heathrow airport.
She claims she was branded a "slave" and called a "disgusting Nigerian" by one disgruntled traveller as she waited at a border control desk with her two-year-old son Knight on Monday (12Sep11).
In a series of posts on Twitter.com, an angry Kelis writes, "We just landed and I had the midget with me. we get in the passport control line and apparently p**sed this one man off cause he thought I cut the line. Which wouldn't be far fetched of me but this time I actually didn't (not entirely anyway)...
"This fat red faced sweaty 'man' (I use the word man loosely here) started calling me a slave and told me to call him sir and how I was probably a disgusting nigerian. He called me kunta kinte (central slave character in author Alex Haley's book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family) and ranted and raved some more."
But Kelis was even more shocked when none of her fellow passengers, or the airport official at the passport checkpoint, reacted to the man's racially-abusive rant.
She continues, "The man behind the passport desk laughed, shook his head in agreement I guess, and said 'kunta kinte'. All the while the entire line full of people I just sat on a plane with for almost 3 hours. Over 50 people said nothing. I mean literally nothing. Didn't flinch. We all no I'm no saint (sic), so I retaliated. Not the way I wanted to or how that pig deserved..."
The incident has prompted Kelis to lash out at Britons' ignorant attitudes towards racism, insisting it will only get worse if the sensitive subject is not tackled head-on.
She writes, "I am in london all the time and today I'm gonna say that the racial issues in the uk are disgusting. Its (sic) racially decades behind progression because everything is swept under the rug. People don't talk about it. People don't fight about it.
"Not mentioning a problem doesn't make it go away. I bring it up now because as an american it is abundantly clear that my country has a smorgas board (sic) Of disgusting racial problems. We are the poster child for racial inequality even still with a black president But its No Secret! And that I can fight against.
"I can try to prepare and teach my son. Because its out there. But you can't fight for or against something no one is willing to talk about or even admit exist (sic). Everyone wants to be politically correct. But who really cares...? Maybe someone will start to talk about it from here."
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Tuesday, September 13th 2011 at 2:16PM
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