Leona Lewis Recalls Experience With 'Racist' Shop Owner: 'It Sparked a Rage in Me'
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The killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police officers have sparked a global protest movement against systemic racism and police brutality. They’ve also ignited a parallel reckoning of racist attitudes and incidents in the lives of black and brown people around the world, including singer Leona Lewis, who shared her painful story with fans on Instagram on Saturday (June 6).
Reacting to comments she’s heard about how racist attitudes and incidents are not as prevalent in the U.K., the singer offered her personal experience with discrimination amid the solidarity marches that took place across England over the weekend. She said that after signing a management deal and buying a new place a few years ago, she went out shopping with her dad in London at a “cute little shop” to buy some items for her apartment.
“I didn’t realize it at the time, but all of the [other] customers were white, me and my dad were the only black people in there,” she said, recalling that the female store owner was “hovering around” as Lewis browsed the merchandise. “Eventually she came up to my dad and I and said, ‘You need to put that down. You need to put that stuff down! You’re not allowed to touch it.’ And me and my dad were just confused. We looked around because every other person was picking stuff up, looking at it.”
Lewis said she immediately understood what was happening and asked the store owner why she was singling them out, with the woman re-iterating that they needed to put the items down immediately while striking a confrontational tone. She noticed the other shoppers staring and speaking under their breath about the incident as they began leaving the store.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/leona-lewis-recalls-experience-with-racist-shop-owner-it-sparked-a-rage-in-me/ar-BB15cKoe?ocid=spartandhp
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