Lidya Jewett Shares Her Experience As a Young Black Actress
Lidya Jewett is opening up about her story.
The 13-year-old Good Girls actress shared on Instagram about being a black actress and being handed flesh colored accessories to wear that didn’t match her skin tone, and the first couple of times she was called a racial slur.
“My story *The first time I was called a ‘n*gger* was by a white man. I was 10. I was sitting in a restaurant in Atlanta where I was shooting a movie. He then said I looked like those ‘little girls blown up in the church’. He also said I belonged in Selma. *i have had more than one hair person sigh loudly when doing my hair on a movie set and roll their eyes at the other hair people. They think I don’t see and hear but I do. *i have been given costume accessories and I’m told ‘they want you to wear these flesh tone pieces’. But they are not my flesh tone,” Lidya recalled.
“the next time I was called a *n*gger* I was told I belonged in the back of the bus. I was also 10. *when I am in a store the security people are close by. I have been taught to keep my hands out where they can be seen and not pick up anything or to put my hands near my pockets. I hear the speaker call for a security scan of the part of the store I am in. I am taught to stand out in the open,” she continued.
“I have never even thought of stealing anything. I can pay for the things I want to buy. I deserve to have flesh colored items that match my flesh. I deserve to have people who GET to touch my hair be respectful about it because it is me. I deserve not to be called the n word. And I deserve to be able to relax in a store that I want to shop in and not worry that people think I might steal. I deserve these things because these things matter. I matter. Black lives matter,” Lidya said.
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