“Hi everyone. I hope everyone is okay, I just kinda wanted to do a video with everything that’s going on in the world right now. First I just want to say my condolences to George Floyd’s family and all the other families who’ve lost someone due to police brutality and racism. So, I’ve written some words down because I feel like, when I speak about my experiences or racism in general I get really sad, like, upset and I can never really say everything that I wanna say so I feel like, I’ve written it down and I just wanna share this with you guys so, okay.. Last year I decided to open up about being ¼ girls in Little Mix and how my race imprinted my experiences, from that interview some people sympathise, some said nothing but one thing I took from that experience is the world did not care enough about race. Since then I’ve tried to use my platform to raise awareness on matters such as racism. At this time I feel, for the first time in my life, racism is the topic of conversation. We have the world’s attention. We cannot see this as a moment, this has to be a movement until the system designed to oppress us is no more and we’re seen as equal to our white counterparts. This is not something that can happen overnight. Black people have been oppressed for over 400 years. 400 years later we’re seeing still our black brothers and sisters being shot down and treated with less regard that everyone else. My parents are both mixed-race, both my grandfathers came to England with the Windrush generation and both married white women in a time where interracial relationships were extremely frowned upon but we’re not, me and my sisters never saw race being a limitation on what we wanted to achieve because of our grandparents raised mixed-race children in the 60s, we could do anything. One thing we were doing was sleeping on racism. Too often black people are reminded how far we have come as opposed to how far we can go in doing this we sleep on racism. Think about it, do you ever hear white people having to be thankful about how far they are coming to race? There comes a point in every black human’s life, no matter how much money you have or what you have achieved, you realise racism does not exclude you. Nine years ago, after joining Little Mix, I had the biggest awakening of my life. When we were filming Wings, we worked with Frank Gatson. He said to me, “You are the black girl, you have to work ten times harder.” Never in my life had someone told me I would need to work harder because of my race. Later on, what Frank Gatson said made sense. I learned that being in the biggest girl band in the world came with its flaws and consequences. Consequences such as knowing about the existing underlying racism in the creative industries. You don’t understand, you can’t be seen to be too loud or too opinionated otherwise you’re deemed a diva or aggressive. You learn that by walking into a room you were deemed unapproachable or offish before anyone has even approached you. You learnt that voicing your opinion about the lack of diversity within the industry is like smashing your head against a brick wall so at events, ceremonies you learn to take great great comfort from rare moments when you meet black creatives who understand this feeling of miss placement that you have inside. So for that moment, the dream is alive and then just like that reality hits you. My reality was feeling lonely while touring predominantly white countries. I sing to fans who don’t see me or hear me or cheer me on. My reality is feeling anxious before fan events and signings because I always feel like I’m the least favoured. My reality is constantly feeling like I have to work ten times harder and longer to mark my case in the group, because my talent alone isn’t enough. My reality is wanting to see other artists who I know are so talented but never get opportunities. Opportunities I had. Because to the industry, they’re not marketable but they will get behind someone else when the aspects of black culture the world wants to see will be behind the aspects they feel makes them unmarketable. My reality is all the times I felt invisible within my group. Part of me is fully aware that my experience would have been ever harder to cope with had I been dark-skinned. Our reality is no matter how far you think you’ve come, racism exists. It exists in sports, in creative industries, in politics and policies in the streets and in the hearts of individuals. We are no longer in a position where we need to be quiet on this matter. So let’s all continue to speak up on racism and keep this movement going. Thank you.”
— Leigh-Anne’s full speech about racism.
