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By now, many of you have seen the photos and video footage floating around the interwebs that shows Destiny’s Child singer Kelly Rowland exchanging heated words with an usher at the 77th Cannes Film Festival who got a little too up close and personal for the Mea Culpa actor’s liking causing Rowland to have to put her on notice that she won’t be treated any kind of way.
Now, the fine folks on Black Twitter (or Xitter?) immediately had Rowland’s back because we don’t play about Kelly and we don’t play about Black people demanding respect in predominately white spaces, but there were those who predictably assumed the interaction was caused by a Black woman’s foul attitude, as opposed to the tendency of Cucasian authority figures to get a little more aggressive when dealing with the melanated public.
Well, Kelly is now speaking out about what happened during that moment on the steps of the Palais des Festivals building where the premiere of “Marcello Mio” was being shown, and, according to her, it’s just what many of us assumed: she didn’t have the complexion for the protection.
“The woman knows what happened. I know what happened. I have a boundary and I stand by those boundaries and that is it,” Rowland told the Associated Press. “And there were other women that attended that carpet who did not quite look like me and they didn’t get scolded or pushed off or told to get off. I stood my ground and she felt like she had to stand hers. But I stood my ground.”
Welp, a lot of us said it.
Kelly said she was “told to get off” the red carpet on the steps of the Palais des Festivals walk-up. We could see in the video that an usher aggressively prompted her to move along twice before two more ushers appeared behind her with their hands out to block her view and drive her up the stairs. That’s when Rowland let them know she really isn’t the one, and rightfully so.
Black women need to be afforded the space to stand up for themselves when they know they’re being disrespected without being labeled an “angry Black woman,” and Kelly Rowland needed them people to put some respect on her name.
Tell’em like it is Kelly. See how much social media has Rowland’s back below.
