Former Fifth Harmony member Normani has shown support for Leigh-Anne Pinnock after the songstress said she felt like the “least favored” member of Little Mix because of her race. For those who missed it, on Friday, June 5, the former X Factor contestant posted a powerful video on Instagram where she talked bout her experiences with racism.
“More than ever I felt like it was time that I was completely open and honest with you all because finally, the world is awake and people want to listen, help and understand,” the 28-year-old captioned the five-minute video. “I’m doing it because enough is enough and hopefully from sharing this we can all do more to understand the racism that takes place.”
After watching the IGTV video, Normani took to the comments section and wrote, “I am YOU and you are ME.”
Leigh-Anne responded, “This is why I’ve always felt a connection to you.”
As fans know, Normani’s support came just few weeks after Little Mix revealed that there was a rivalry between themselves and Fifth Harmony back in the day.
“We always loved them, we never didn’t like them as people but there was a point where there was rivalry,” Jade Thirlwall admitted while chatting with Buzzfeed, at the time.
Throughout her video, Leigh-Anne also recounted several moments when she felt that she constantly had to “work 10 times harder and longer to mark my place in the group because my talent alone isn’t enough.”
“My reality is all the times that I have felt invisible in my group but part of me is fully aware that my experience would be even harder to cope with had I been dark-skinned,” she said, before remembering a specific instance from the “Wings” music video set when choreographer Frank Gatson gave her a major piece of advice.
“He said to me, ‘You are the black girl. You have to work 10 times harder.’ Never in my life had someone told me that I would need to work harder because of my race. Later on, what Frank Gatson said made sense,” Leigh-Anne explained. “I learned that the dream of being in the biggest girl band in the world came with its flaws and consequences. Consequences such as knowing about the existent underlying racism in the creative industries.”
She concluded, “I’m not doing this video for sympathy or for you to watch and then go about normal life. I’m doing it because enough is enough and hopefully from sharing this we can all do more to understand the racism that takes place. In doing this, we are able to approach the bigger issue and break down systemic racism. All we want is equality and justice for our black community.”
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