Solange Knowles Writes Essay About Lime Thrown At Her, ‘Being [Black] In Predominantly White Spaces’

Solange and her family were attending a Kraftwerk show in New Orleans on Sept. 9 when four white women yelled at her to sit down, and eventually threw a lime at her.

SOLANGE WRITES ABOUT ABUSE RECEIVED AT CONCERT

Solange was dancing in the crowd with her husband Alan Ferguson, their 11-year-old son Daniel, and their friend Rasheed. “Four older white women yell to me from behind ‘Sit down now,'” Solange writes. “I tell them I’m dancing at a concert. They yell ‘You need to sit down now.'” Following this, one of the women throws a lime at Solange.

The essay Solange wrote based on this experience is entitled And Do You Belong? I Do, and is posted on her website. She tells that when her husband confronted the women, one replied, “I just want to make it clear, I wasn’t the one who yelled those horrible, nasty things at you,” Solange wrote in response, “This led me to believe they were saying things way worse than what I heard, but I’m not surprised at that part one bit.”

“I never called these woman racists, but people continually put those words in your mouth,” she continues. “What I did indeed say is, ‘This is why many black people are uncomfortable being in predominately white spaces’ and I still stand true to that.”

Her essay concluded that she was able to enjoy the concert after all this experience.

“After you think it all over, you know that the biggest payback you could ever had (after, go figure, they then decided they wanted to stand up and dance to songs they liked) was dancing right in front of them with my hair swinging from left to right, my beautiful black son and husband, and our dear friend Rasheed jamming the hell out with the rhythm our ancestors blessed upon us saying…We belong. We belong. We belong. We built this.”