John Legend was recently called a ‘monkey’ by a racist paparazzo while walking through JFK Airport in New York City with his wife Chrissy Teigen.
The father-of-one talked about the despicable experience with Variety at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival while attending a panel for season two of Underground on Saturday in Park City, Utah. “We were right next to each other and we looked at each other like, ‘Did he really just say that?’ And he really said it. He basically called me a monkey,” the 38-year-old recalled.
“Black folks have had to deal with being called monkeys for a long time and dehumanization has always been a method of racism and subjugation of black people,” continued John. “That’s just part of American history and it’s part of the present, apparently. We saw it with the former president, Obama, whenever people wanted to discount him or discount his wife, they compared them to apes. And we’ve seen that frequently.”
.@JohnLegend opens up at #VarietyStudio about his recent racist airport encounter with wife @chrissyteigen: “It’s a shame that still exists” pic.twitter.com/BhZGsUvJyJ
— Variety (@Variety) January 22, 2017
