"You’re Filipino, you’re all cleaners right?"

Former Hear’Say singer Myleene Klass has shared her experience with racism growing up in Norfolk.

The Filipino British singer uploaded a childhood picture of herself with a lengthy caption detailing the racism she faced.

Klass was inspired to make the post by the murder of African American George Floyd who died at the hands of a police officer.

“How whilst I don’t understand the struggles a black person living in America might be experiencing, how I do understand and know my own experience of being a mixed race Filipino girl growing up in Norfolk,” Klass wrote.

Kicking of her caption, Klass listed a number of racist slurs that were thrown at her: “Slit eye, Number 69, Fried rice, Mongrel. Ping pong, Slut. All Thai brides are sluts.
Banana”

In the post, Klass recalls how abuse from racists wasn’t just limited to verbal. “On other occasions, it wasn’t just words, it was rock filled snowballs by a group of boys as I walked home, I had my hair cut in the school cloakrooms by some girls, later they threatened a lighter. There was spitting.”

Klass also shared racist questions she was confronted with such as “Why does your mum speak like that? Why don’t you have an accent?‘I was born here. Yeah, but you don’t belong here’. ”

“You’re Filipino, you’re all cleaners right?”

Even now, Klass says she is exposed to racism. “In the area I live now, ‘get a Filipino’ is bandied around so easily when referring to getting a nanny, they don’t even realise they’re talking about a person, an actual person,” she said.

“A woman who will likely have sacrificed being with her own children for years to raise your snotty kids.”

Nonetheless, Klass expressed how proud she was of her ethnicity.

“The world looks different now. I am mixed race and I am so proud of that. Growing up in Norfolk, there wasn’t much visibility as to what a girl like me could aspire to be but I was surrounded by incredible, selfless nurses and those in service, the same who are tending our covid patients and dropping like flies,” she said.

In related news, right-wing hashtags surrounding George Floyd protests are being flooded with Kpop content.

In other news, video footage of a Chinese takeaway in Lancashire being violently attacked has been circulating online.

The attack comes amid the Coronavirus at a time when hate crimes against Chinese people in the UK are rising.

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Chink Slit eye Number 69, Fried rice Mongrel Ping pong Slut. All Thai brides are sluts. Banana * * I’m trying so hard to explain the complexities of racism to my children. How it happens. How whilst I don’t understand the struggles a black person living in America might be experiencing, how I do understand and know my own experience of being a mixed race Filipino girl growing up in Norfolk. I had those words thrown at me. On other occasions, it wasn’t just words, it was rock filled snowballs by a group of boys as I walked home, I had my hair cut in the school cloakrooms by some girls, later they threatened a lighter. There was spitting. Why does your mum speak like that? Why don’t you have an accent? ‘I was born here. Yeah, but you don’t belong here’. *I also remember the pride and relief I felt when a bus of school children, aged 10 pulled up next to my own bus and the children opposite all started making ‘Chinese eyes and buck teeth’ to then have my own bus retaliate with fist signs and fingers. It was small ‘victory’, I felt embarrassed, hot, shamed but I remember it so well because for the first time, I didn’t feel alone, I had a small token of solidarity that gave me courage. * *At college, I walked into the canteen only to have a group of students hand me their trays loaded up with dirty plates. You’re Filipino, you’re all cleaners right? Then the laughter. * * In the area I live now, ‘get a Filipino’ is bandied around so easily when referring to getting a nanny, they don’t even realise they’re talking about a person, an actual person. A woman who will likely have sacrificed being with her own children for years to raise your snotty kids. Another popular quote… ‘We love our Filipino nanny (still no name), she’s like family, we send her home every year for Xmas’. Not doing a sister out of a job, but she’s not your pet and she has a name. The world looks different now. I am mixed race and I am so proud of that. Growing up in Norfolk, there wasn’t much visibility as to what a girl like me could aspire to be but I was surrounded by incredible, selfless nurses and those in service, the same who are tending our covid patients and dropping like flies.

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