.@Jamelia says that she was challenged by a train passenger over why her and her daughter were sitting in first class. pic.twitter.com/XJjcw6amcy
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) January 31, 2017
British singer-songwriter Jamelia, who was questioned by a white train passenger over her first-class ticket, said that microaggressions of this nature are issues people of color deal with all of the time.
The 36-year-old told Channel 4 News‘ Jon Snow during a Jan. 30 interview that the woman approached her and her 11-year-old daughter as soon as she sat down on the train in early January.
“I mean, my immediate thought was, ‘Here we go again,’ but I thought, ‘Let me give her the benefit of the doubt,'” she says. “So I said, ‘Why have you asked me that question?’ She then said, ‘Well, you know, you won’t be allowed to travel if you haven’t got a first-class ticket. You won’t be allowed to sit in this carriage.”
She recalled feeling disappointed because she knew there was a racial element to the woman’s insistent meddling. “It was very clear the reasoning behind it. I wasn’t the only parent on the train, I wasn’t the only young person on the train in that carriage, but we were the only Black people in that carriage.”
Jamelia took to Twitter Jan. 12 to tell her fans that the passenger could not believe that she could afford first-class tickets. Instead of ignoring the passenger’s clear racist bias, Jamelia confronted the woman and moved to another seat.
I look her dead in the eye & say "let this be a lesson to you, don't you ever make this assumption out loud again, I hope you feel ashamed"
— Jamelia 🇯🇲 (@Jamelia) January 12, 2017
I then pick up my stuff & move to another table in the carriage with my daughter…a white guy sits down where we were sat…Not. A. Peep.
— Jamelia 🇯🇲 (@Jamelia) January 12, 2017
My daughter looks over at the lady and says "Are you not going to ask him for his credentials then?" The lady turned as red as a beetroot.
— Jamelia 🇯🇲 (@Jamelia) January 12, 2017
I'm done not calling people out. I am also raising two wonderful young women who will grow up to call you out too…you have been warned 😑😑😑
— Jamelia 🇯🇲 (@Jamelia) January 12, 2017
After going through this incident, the singer wants people to know that these microaggressions happen too often to people of color.
“And what concerns me is the fact that so many people are unaware,” she says. “I guess my reason for speaking out about it, aside from being an example for my daughter, was that I want people to be aware.”
Jamelia urged people to look out for one another in these times. She hopes a day will come when she doesn’t have to have these types of racial conversations with her daughter.
