Pop star Solange Knowles–sister to New Orleans-loving superstar Beyonce Knowles–penned an open letter on her blog after being harassed by a group of women during Friday night’s Kraftwerk concert at the Orpheum Theater.
Knowles attended the German electronic music titans’ performance with her husband, son and son’s friend. According to the singer, she was aggressively asked to sit down by a group of white women while dancing in front of her seat as the band played their song, “The Hall of Mirrors.” After ignoring their request because, “This is a band that were pioneers of electronic and dance music. Surely the audience is going to expect you to dance at some point,” one of the women threw a half-eaten lime at Knowles in anger.
Knowles, who has been a resident of the Crescent City for a number of years, tweeted about the altercation while it was happening on Friday night (those tweets have since been deleted), saying, “This is why many black people are uncomfortable being in predominantly white spaces.”
Her open letter–titled And Do You Belong? I Do–expands upon this idea as it describes a litany of micro-aggressions that Knowles and other people of color experience on a regular basis. It also ties those experiences to a few not-so-micro aggressions, like David Duke’s candidacy and the ongoing attempt to build an oil pipeline through sacred Native American lands.
An excerpt from the essay, which you can check out in full here, reads:
Imagine.
Telling your son and his friend Rasheed about a band you love and one that played a pivotal role in the history of hip-hop. Something that as a family you all feel very connected to.
Imagine, although the kids are interested, they are still 11, unfamiliar, and would rather be spending their Friday night differently. You and your husband are always talking to your son about expansion and being open to other things and experiences, so you guys make the Kraftwerk concert a family Friday night.
You get there about 10 minutes late, but lucky for you, as soon as you walk to your box seats, the song that you just played for your son in the car is on! It’s a song his uncle sampled, ” The Hall of Mirrors.” You haven’t even sat down yet because you just walked to your seat and you’re so excited to dance to this DANCE MUSIC SONG.
Simultaneously, a much older black venue attendant comes over to your son and his friend and yells “No electronic cigarettes allowed, you need to stop doing that now!”
You are too into the groove and let your husband handle it and tell the attendant that the children are 11 years old, and it’s actually the two grown white men in front of you guys who were smoking them.
You are annoyed and feel it’s extremely problematic that someone would challenge their innocence, but determined to stay positive and your husband has handled this accordingly.
About 20 seconds later, you hear women yell aggressively, “Sit down now, you need to sit down right now” from the box behind you. You want to be considerate, however, they were not at all considerate with their tone, their choice of words, or the fact that you just walked in and seem to be enjoying yourself.
You are also confused as to what show you went to. This is a band that were pioneers of electronic and dance music. Surely the audience is going to expect you to dance at some point.
You were planning on sitting down after this song, as long as it wasn’t one of the four songs that you really connect with and plan on getting down to.
You feel something heavy hit you on the back of your shoulder, but consider that you are imagining things because well….certainly a stranger would not have the audacity.
Moments later, you feel something again, this time smaller, less heavy, and your son and his friend tell you those ladies just hit you with a lime.
You look down only to see the half eaten lime on the ground below you.
