Entertainment

John Legend Had An Epic Response To Racist Paparazzo's 'Monkey' Comment

by Robert Anthony
REX/Shutterstock

You can add "taking the high road" to John Legend's extensive list of skills.

The 38-year-old singer had been strolling through John F. Kennedy International Airport with wife Chrissy Teigen last week when a camera-wielding paparazzo asked Teigen a racist question about Legend.

As expected, Chrissy took to Twitter to share the baffling words with the rest of the world, and we couldn't believe our eyes either.

Here is Chrissy Teigen's tweet about a racist photographer asking an insulting question about husband John Legend.

Yeah, he really did ask that...

Teigen then confirmed John had been standing right next to her when the question was asked.

This is where we're at with race relations in America right now? How sad.

We've reached a point where celebrities can't even go about their days without being harassed with blatant racism. Not to mention, the culprit behind this particular attack is literally paid to follow them around.

Not to worry, decent human beings. John Legend had a perfect response to the racist paparazzo's question.

During a recent interview with Variety Studio at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Legend recalled the incident. He said,

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.

Now, I'm not too sure about you, but I would have flipped the fuck out. While violence is never an option in my book, I likely would have broken a few of my own rules if I were in John's shoes.

However, he had a much calmer reaction to the alleged comment directed at him. He wants to use this opportunity to spread knowledge after a first hand experience with hate.

Legend continued,

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. That's just part of American history and it's part of the present, apparently. We saw it with the former president, [Barack] Obama. Whenever people wanted to discount him or discount his wife, they compared them to apes. And we've seen that frequently.

The "Love Me Now" singer then went on to talk about how he wasn't fazed by the photographer's repulsive words.

Instead, he feels they've made him "smarter" and "stronger." He added,

I'm not hurt by someone saying that to me because I'm smarter, I'm stronger. I look down on that person that would say something like that, but it's a shame that still exists.

Here's the clip.

Seriously, what year are we living in and who's responsible for putting us in a time machine sending us back to the 17th century?

They deserve one of those "you're fired" catchphrases.

Citations: John Legend Addresses Paparazzo Who Allegedly Made Racist Comment: 'It's a Shame' (Entertainment Tonight)