Singer reveals childhood race hate hell

Mar 23 2007 By Neil Elkes, Birmingham Mail

QUEEN of British soul Beverley Knight today told of the racial abuse she and her family suffered while growing up in Wolverhampton.

The pop star, who has enjoyed success with a string of chart-topping hits and been honoured with an MBE, has joined an anti-racism campaign launched today.

She talked about how school kids would call her "blackie" and how people spat at her mum in the street.

The national Hope Not Hate campaign aims to combat these attitudes and its double decker bus visits Birmingham and Dudley next Friday and West Bromwich on April 1.

Beverley is the first generation of her family born in the UK after they left Jamaica.

She said: "From a very early age I was aware of hostility towards people like me and my family. Back then I didn't know it was racism, I was too young to understand.

"Other kids would say things like 'your skin's black because you haven't washed' and 'your hair's like a brillo pad'.

"I did my best to ignore them but it just got worse until one day the teacher went out of the class and this girl started chanting 'blackie, blackie' and soon the whole class caught on."

Beverley also said this was trivial compared to hostility her parents endured after arriving in the UK in 1959. Once her father and his brothers were set upon by 20 men.

"Wolverhampton was a different place back then. My mother was spat at, called names and shouted at in the street. People would make excuses not to serve you or let you on public transport.

"My parents went through hell."

Despite this Beverley stressed she is proud of her British heritage and proud of to be born in Wolverhampton.

"People must learn not to hate someone because of where they are from," she added.