Jamelia Davis, a British R&B singer and model, recently shut down a white passenger on a train who accused her of not having a first-class ticket.
According to the Atlanta Black Star, Davis recalled the incident in a series of tweets, where she said that a woman in her 40s, who did not work for the railroad, approached her and her 11-year-old and asked whether they had tickets to sit in the coveted section of the train. It’s clear that the 36-year-old model and singer was not here for the nonsense and stuck up for herself and her child.
And then she ends with the slayage of all Tweets:
After the incident, Jamelia used her blog to further explain her bout with “First-Class Racism.”
“I need to say, at this point, this situation is far from unique,” the singer wrote. “Most of my train travel is first class, and I would estimate that at least 60 percent of the time, I experience this exchange with either another passenger or someone working for the train company. It’s irritating, embarrassing, but I, like many affluent, Black women, accept it as an annoying part of the space I occupy in society,” she wrote.
And while plenty of fans and followers were on the singer’s side, she did experience criticism from others who questioned why she was playing the “race card.”
“I also received tweets asking why I felt the need to tweet about it, why didn’t I just keep it to myself, I have a chip on my shoulder, I’m attention seeking and [I’m] ‘always playing the race card,’” Jamelia wrote. “If I was to tweet every single racist incident that happened to me as it happened, you would be on the floor.”
She added: “The problem is that we don’t tell you, we speak about it amongst ourselves and you get to carry on about your day not realizing you’ve ruined ours. I tweeted because I wanted you to read it. I wanted you to be aware of this happening. I wanted you to know that even if you have these thoughts in your head, it’s not OK to say it aloud.”
Most important, she said that she wanted to lead by example and teach both her daughters the importance of rising up against systematic racism and being “brave enough to put these important conversations on the table now.”
“We decided that, from now on, we’re going to help people out,” Jamelia said.
“We are going to be brave and tell them, ‘I don’t like that you did/said that.’ I was and am so proud of the bravery my daughter displayed. Yes, she is being taught to respect her elders, but she is also being taught to effectively communicate her genuine feelings, no matter who it may be.”
PHOTO: Jamelia Instagram
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British Singer Jamelia Pens Essay On Racial Profiling After Train Encounter was originally published on hellobeautiful.com
