The cult of Twilight is a curious one, and its two main stars—Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart—have become flesh-and-blood vessels for fans’ own romantic, often obsessive fantasies. So when they found out Pattinson was dating British singer FKA Twigs, they were not happy.
FKA Twigs (real name Tahliah Barnett) is a rising pop star. Her videos are gorgeous visions of empowerment and sexuality, which is mirrored in her soulful music. She is also a black woman. Twilight fans have been harassing her via Twitter, lobbing racist invective and slurs her way, because she’s NOT K-STEW.
On Sunday, she posted two tweets addressing this abuse.
I am genuinely shocked and disgusted at the amount of racism that has been infecting my account the past week.
— FKA twigs (@FKAtwigs) September 28, 2014
Racism is unacceptable in the real world and it's unacceptable online.
— FKA twigs (@FKAtwigs) September 28, 2014Her label also stepped in:
The racist abuse @FKAtwigs is getting on her social networks is despicable and depressingly archaic.
— Young Turks (@youngturksrec) September 28, 2014In a recent interview with Dazed, the singer discussed being the only mixed-race girl in her Catholic school, and dealing with racism as a kid:
Half of my life I’ve had people staring at me because they think I’m funny-looking and ugly. The other half of my life I’ve had people staring at me because they think I’m fascinating. Everything neutralises. It’s more of a statement on society and how weird it is.
Society is weird, yes, but this is unacceptable. It's already been pointed out over and over how Twitter's abuse-reporting system, especially for women, is frustratingly broken.
H/T Pitchfork | Screengrab via FKA Twigs/YouTube