In the wake of ‘Black Lives Matter’, thanks to ‘George Floyd’ and rest his soul. Many mixed and black people are talking about their experience with racism and celebrities are no exception. From Alandra Burke to Leona Lewis, Misha B and Davido Oyewole, watch and cry with these celebs as they expose and talk about their experiences with racism in their respective industry.
1. ALEXANDRA BURKE: 2008 X factor winner, Alexandra Burke, it the latest British celebrity to join the many people of colour who are speaking out about how racism affected their lives as well as their career. She said at the young age of 15 when she joined the music industry, she was told as the black girl of the group, she will have to work 10 times harder. “Why does an industry that should be focused on vocal ability spend so much time dictating artists worth on their colour?” She said. watch the video below.
2. LEIGH-ANNE PINNOCK: Leigh-Anne from the British girls’ band, Little Mix took to Instagram on Friday, June 5th to share a powerful video of herself speaking about how being the only black member of Little Mix has forced her to “work 10 times harder” to mark her place in the group.
The 28-year-old singer whose parents are mixed race said she had “the biggest awakening of my life” when filming the video for Little Mix’s 2012 single Wings. Watch the video below
3. LEONA LEWIS: Leona Lewis who achieved national recognition after winning the third series of The X Factor in 2006, narrated one of her experiences also. She, however, focused more on an incident that occurred while shopping with her father in Oxford Street and said this particular incident deeply impacted me. Watch the video below.
4. DAVID OYEWOLE: British Nigerian Actor David Oyelowo also spoke out about his experiences & fears. Despite being a successful British actor in America and being a very optimistic person, Racism still finds a way to remind him where he is coming from.
Posting this video below, he said, “every black person has racism as a wound”. And went along to talk about a handful of his own experiences and how it affecting 3 generations of black men in his family.
5. MISHA B: Misha B took part in the 2011 season of The X Factor. A few days ago, she took to Instagram to the narrative the heartbreaking story about her musical journey as a dark skin woman. Focusing more on how the judges of the show treated her and how that impacted her life. watch the video below.
