Celebrities share their personal experiences with racism

Kravitz wasn’t even given the chance to audition and was told she was “too urban” for the role. She says she’s unsure whether the decision came from director Christopher Nolan or a casting director. Kravitz came up against the same roadblock when she wanted to audition for the movie ‘Nylon’ in 2015. Once again, she was told they “weren’t ‘going urban'” for the role.

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Ryan Coogler -

‘Black Panther’ director Ryan Coogler went into a branch of Bank of America on January 7, 2022 to make a cash withdrawal from his account. He was making a large withdrawal of US$12,000 and was nervous about walking around with that much cash, so he gave the teller a note asking her to count the money out of sight to be more discreet.

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Ryan Coogler -

The teller reportedly misinterpreted the request and told her manager that Coogler was trying to rob the bank. Coogler was subsequently approached by police with guns drawn and arrested, simply for trying to withdraw money from his own account.

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Meghan Markle - The Duchess of Sussex became the target of a wave of racist attacks as soon as she was first linked to Prince Harry. Markle was the first person of color ever to join the royal family, and it exposed a nasty prejudice throughout the British media, the general public, and even the royal family itself.

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Meghan Markle -

One headline from the popular tabloid the Daily Mirror read “EXCLUSIVE: Harry’s girl is (almost) straight outta Compton: Gang-scarred home of her mother revealed.” In her explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Markle confirmed that racism was a major factor in what drove her and her husband out of the UK and the royal family.

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Michelle Obama -

In her 2018 autobiography ‘Becoming,’ Michelle Obama spoke of the discrimination she had experienced throughout her life, from the first time someone used a vulgar racial slur towards her to seeing the white families move out of her neighborhood as more Black families moved in.

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Michelle Obama -

Through her husband’s presidential campaign and her new role as the First Lady of the United States, Obama became subject to incredibly personal attacks on a much larger scale. Whenever she spoke passionately on social issues she was labeled an angry Black woman. She revealed that government officials called her “an ape in heels” and said that she had a “gorilla face” at a 2016 event.

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Jameela Jamil - Actress and activist Jameela Jamil shared that she first became passionate about injustice in her teens, having already experienced years of violent physical bullying stemming from racism. Jamil was from a poor Pakistani family living in the UK, and said she felt that Pakistani people were not welcomed there.

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Jameela Jamil - In 2020, Piers Morgan, the controversial broadcaster who has expressed more than a few right-wing opinions, engaged Jamil in a Twitter war over the death of TV personality Caroline Flack. He made false claims that Jamil contributed to Flack’s decision to take her own life, which resulted in Jamil receiving a wave of racist death threats.

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Idris Elba - The hunt for the next James Bond has been ongoing for several years, and Idris Elba’s name is one that keeps popping up. Despite his assertions that he will not be taking the role, many insist that he would be the perfect Bond. Others, however, can’t accept the idea of a Black man playing the iconic character. Elba told Vanity Fair in 2019 that he was becoming disheartened by the racist backlash the debate evokes from the public.

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Idris Elba - Elba has experienced racism throughout his life, ever since his childhood days growing up in Canning Town in East London, where he says, “If you were black and living in Canning Town, you were probably subject to racial abuse and getting chased down the street by people calling you a black coon.”

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Thandiwe Newton -

In 2020, Thandiwe Newton told the story of an awful interaction she had with former Sony executive Amy Pascal. Newton was working on a Mission Impossible movie at the time, and Pascal, who is white, essentially tried to give Newton notes on how to “enhance” her portrayal with a list of Black stereotypes.

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Chrissy Teigen - In 2015, Chrissy Teigen tweeted that she had just experienced a bizarre verbal assault. The model said that she was on Santa Monica Boulevard in LA and had dropped her sunglasses when a man suddenly screamed a racial slur at her.

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Teigen has also observed how her husband, John Legend, has been treated as a Black man in the US. She recounted a time when they were in Virginia and he was harassed by two "neighborhood-watch-type" white men while minding his own business.

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Simu Liu -

Canadian actor Simu Liu appeared on the TV series ‘Kim’s Convenience’ for the entirety of its six seasons. As it came to an end in 2021, Liu and other cast members spoke out about how the show had lost its way and the racism they experienced on set. Liu revealed that very few of the show’s writers or producers were of Asian descent, and that they started coming up with increasingly ignorant and racist storylines.

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Simu Liu -

Liu said he was not given any autonomy over his character and was pushed to the point of tears when forced to say a line he considered terribly racist.

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Naomi Campbell -

Naomi Campbell was a trailblazer as one of the first Black models to become a superstar in the high fashion industry. No doubt she experienced more than a little racism throughout her career, but, more surprisingly, she experienced discrimination at a hotel as recently as 2019.

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Naomi Campbell -

Campbell had been invited to participate at an event in a luxury hotel in Cannes during the film festival. However, the doorman refused her entry when she arrived at the hotel, telling her it was full while still allowing others to enter. Campbell believes he didn’t recognize her and judged that she wasn’t the hotel’s preferred kind of clientele based on the color of her skin.

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Dev Patel -

British actor Dev Patel landed his first major international role in the 2008 film ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’ He expected to receive more offers after that breakthrough, but found he was still receiving relatively few invitations to audition, and was still only getting Indian roles that required him to “put on a thick accent.” As a British man of Indian descent, Patel also struggled with the feeling that when he played an Indian role, he was criticized for not being Indian enough, but when he played a British role, the public feedback was that he wasn't really British. Many children of immigrants can understand this feeling of living in a cultural no man's land.

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Gemma Chan - ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ (2018) star Gemma Chan shared her frustrations with the ridiculous feedback she often receives as an Asian actress. Like Patel and many other actors of color, Chan is frequently told that she’s either “too Asian” or “not Asian enough.”

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Gabrielle Union -

In 2019, Gabrielle Union opened up about the racist environment she found at ‘America’s Got Talent’ when she appeared as a judge on the show. She revealed that racist jokes were commonplace and that the appearance of female judges was a major focus, and racial comments were often made. She was dismissed from the show for her comments, and ended up in a legal battle with the network.

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Gabrielle Union -

Union also shared a terrifying experience she and her friends had while traveling in Croatia that same year. They entered what they thought might be a gay bar only to find themselves surrounded by Nazi memorabilia and a volatile crowd of racist customers that made her fear for her safety. They were immediately approached and intimidated by a group that followed them down the street when they left the bar. "I've never experienced that level of hatred and the threat of physical violence," Union said. "We think we're post-racial but we're not," she continued.

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Yara Shahidi -

‘Black-ish’ star Yara Shahidi was born in the year 2000, and still finds racism to be a pervasive issue in her daily life. In an interview with Glamour UK, she said she often feels segregated and experiences micro-aggressions on a regular basis.

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Yara Shahidi -

Shahidi explained that there are so many moments she's reminded that she’s not a part of the mainstream, “whether it’s my hair, comments on people preferring it straight, whether it’s comments on Iran, Blackness and what people expect of a Black human."

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Tia and Tamera Mowry -

Tia Mowry and her twin sister Tamera were rising young stars in the ‘90s as their show ‘Sister Sister’ became a hit. However, Mowry recalled being told that she and her sister couldn’t appear on the cover of a magazine simply because they’re Black and it wouldn’t sell. Mowry also remembers that her mother was constantly racially profiled while traveling with them during that time. They often flew in first class and her mother would be asked by airline staff if she was in the right seat.

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Padma Lakshmi -

'Top Chef' host Padma Lakshmi got into a horrible altercation while filming an episode of the show in Boston in 2014. Lakshmi says she was approached by an angry union worker who threatened her physically and used racial slurs. It was alleged that several workers showed up at the set to hurl homophobic and racial slurs at the cast and crew because they had hired non-union workers. Lakshmi described feeling terrified and physically unsafe.

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Lamorne Morris -

Lamorne Morris of shows like ‘New Girl’ and ‘Woke’ believes the entertainment industry is a culturally biased business and has observed countless racist actions over the years. Morris recalled being told there was no budget to provide a barber for him on a TV show even though his white co-stars all had hairstylists.

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Keke Palmer -

Actress Keke Palmer gave a devastating summary of her experience with racism in a 2020 interview with Cosmopolitan: “I know what it feels like to be hated for your skin. It’s so silly and it’s so stupid, but it’s so cruel. I know what it feels like when somebody is racist toward you, and you literally go to a sunken place, you can’t speak."

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Edward Enninful -

Edward Enninful is the editor-in-chief of British Vogue and the European editorial director of Vogue’s parent company, Condé Nast. Regardless, he was racially profiled by the doorman at the company he essentially runs. Enninful tried to walk into the Condé Nast office and was told by the doorman to use the loading bay.

Sources: (Vox) (USA Today) (The Cut) (Hello!) (Global News) (People)

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Celebrities share their personal experiences with racism

Viola Davis opens up about childhood trauma caused by racist bullies in new memoir

27/04/22 | StarsInsider

CELEBRITY Intolerance

In recent years, the fact that racial discrimination is still a problem has been gaining acknowledgment all over the world. People of color have always known that our society is not "post-racial," even though those for whom race is not an issue might like to think it is. Police violence against Black people was finally recognized by the world during the summer of 2020 as the Black Lives Matter movement reached a fever pitch. Anti-Asian hate crimes saw a major increase as the COVID-19 virus spread, with the US president referring to it as the "Chinese virus." These incidents have made us more aware that racism and discrimination are still prevalent in every corner of society, even among the most famous and successful people in the world.

Many celebrities have shared stories of the shocking prejudice they have encountered, from childhood to the height of their fame. Viola Davis gave a harrowing account of the racist bullying that traumatized her in third grade. Her 2022 memoir, 'Finding Me,' recounts a conversation she once had with Will Smith that brought it all back. Smith asked her "Viola, who are you?" Explaining what he meant, he said "Look, I'm always going to be that 15-year-old boy whose girlfriend broke up with him." Davis thought about everything she had achieved in her life and career up to that point, but realized, "sitting there conversing with Will Smith, I was still that little, terrified, third-grade Black girl."

Davis recalled the peak of the racist abuse she suffered at school while in third grade. "Eight or nine white boys in my class made it their daily, end-of-school ritual to chase me like dogs hunting prey." Her tormentors not only hurled slurs and insults at her, they even pelted her with stones and bricks. The 56-year-old Oscar-, Emmy- and Tony-winning actress has come so far since those days, but still lives with the trauma of those experiences.

Click through this gallery to read about how some of the biggest stars in the world have been mistreated due to the color of their skin.