SHE SAID, SHE SAID | Kelis

Kelis speaks out on Twitter after a man allegedly hurled racist abuse at the singer while she and her two year old son Knight were flying back to the US from the UK following her appearance at Bestival this past weekend. “We just landed and I had the midget with me. We get in the passport control line and apparently pissed 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)…” she added. “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 [the name of a slave in Alex Haley's novel Roots] and ranted and raved some more. 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.”

Racial issues are not uncommon to her home country either, a fact which she also acknowledged while venting her frustration: “As an American it is abundantly clear that my country has a Smorgasbord of disgusting racial problems. We are the poster child for racial inequality even still with a black president but it’s NO SECRET! And that I can fight against. I can try to prepare and teach my son. Because it’s out there. But you can’t fight for or against something no one is willing to talk about or even admit exist.”

Let’s hope it hasn’t put her off coming back. By all accounts, her Bestival set was pretty impressive and included a medley of ‘Trick Me’, ‘Millionaire’ and ‘Milkshake’.

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