Leigh-Anne Pinnock: I don’t care if I lose fans for speaking about racism

The Little Mix star told Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield that racism is “something you can’t ignore”
George Fenwick9 June 2020

Little Mix star Leigh-Anne Pinnock says she “doesn’t care” if she loses fans by speaking out about racism.

Speaking to Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning, Pinnock stressed that racism is “something you can’t ignore”.

"Some people that have posted (about racism) have lost a lot of fans," she said. "I think it's disgusting - but it just proves what we're saying."

The singer revealed on This Morning that there was only one other mixed-race individual on her team, and she had previously felt like people had not listened when she spoke up about racism.

“I spoke about my experiences briefly last year and I just didn’t feel like enough people cared, like enough people were listening,” she said.

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“And obviously, this is the first time in my life that the whole world is speaking about racism, speaking about black lives and I was just so overwhelmed by it and I just thought, ‘You know what, I feel like I need to kind of get rid of this pain that I’ve been carrying around for nine years and hopefully relate to people’. I just felt it was the right time to post it.”

Pinnock appeared on This Morning after she uploaded a heartfelt video in which she recounted her experience of being a black woman in the pop music industry.

She told Willoughby and Schofield: “Even when I watch that video back and I can see how much pain that I’m carrying, but now I just feel like people are starting to understand and educate themselves and see that this problem is massive and we need to talk about it and there needs to be a change because we just can’t go on like this anymore. Four hundred years of oppression, it just can’t go on anymore.”

Pinnock said she had been overwhelmed by the support she had received in the aftermath, including from Fifth Harmony’s Normani and The Saturdays’ Rochelle Humes.

“It’s actually been such a weight lifted for me. I was hearing from people who have been in the same sort of experiences that I have, so being the black girl in their band in the pop industry, saying how they felt exactly the same way as me and I’ve never ever had conversations with people who have had similar experiences as me.”

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Describing her time in Little Mix over the past nine years, Pinnock said: “It was weird because a lot of people would say to me, ‘It’s in your head, it’s in your head. Of course people love you, what do you mean?’

“My team, I only have one mixed-race person that works for me. I’m touring to predominantly white countries, just that sort of sense of feeling like a misplacement sort of feeling, just not like I really belonged and I could only really speak to my family and some of my friends. I just felt like a lot of people didn’t understand why I felt the way I did.”

She also agreed that she previously felt that if she spoke about racism in the music industry too much it might also affect her career, adding: “This is something you can’t ignore, I don’t care how much I preach about this, I don’t care how much I say, because this is my reality and so many other people’s reality and what’s the point in even going on if we can’t get a a change?

“I’m not going to just sit here and not say anything. I don’t care if I lose fans and I already know that some people who have posted have lost a lot of fans and I just think it’s disgusting, but it just proves what we’re saying.”

The singer, whose parents are mixed race and grandparents came to Britain with the Windrush generation, previously revealed she had "the biggest awakening of my life" when filming the Little Mix song Wings in 2012.

She said black director and choreographer Frank Gatson had told her: "You're the black girl. You have to work 10 times harder.

“Never in my life had someone told me I would need to work harder because of my race.

"My reality was feeling lonely while touring to predominately white countries where I sing to fans who don't see me, don't hear me, don't cheer me on," Pinnock said, visibly emotional.

"My reality is constantly feeling like I have to work 10 times harder and longer to make my case in the group, because my talent alone isn't enough."

Additional reporting by Press Association.