Robert Pattinson's Girlfriend FKA twigs Slams Racist Twitter Trolls: 'I Am Genuinely Shocked'
British singer FKA twigs recently hit back at racist trolls on social networking site Twitter.
The artist, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, was recently thrust into the spotlight due to her budding romance with Robert Pattinson and subsequently has been subject to online abuse.
Trolls have been tweeting racist messages to Barnett, 26, simply because she is involved with "Twilight" star Pattinson, 28, and has had enough.
"I am genuinely shocked and disgusted at the amount of racism that has been infecting my account the past week," she tweeted to her 49,000 followers Sunday. "Racism is unacceptable in the real world and it's unacceptable online."
Barnett was born in South West England to a Jamaican father and a mother of English and Spanish descent. As a child growing up, she was the only mixed race student enrolled at her Catholic school, so unfortunately she is no stranger to racism.
"People said horrible things about something I had no control of, which was tough. But that's okay. Life isn't supposed to be easy, is it?" she told British magazine Dazed & Confused. "I never really saw anything wrong with how I looked, it was more that certain people pointed things out to you about yourself."
Barnett, who is currently based in London, was often bullied because of her appearance, which took an emotional toll on the singer-songwriter.
"Either your hair's different, or the color of your skin, or your features. Half of my life I've had people staring at me because they think I'm funny-looking and ugly," she said. "The other half of my life I've had people staring at me because they think I'm fascinating. Everything neutralizes. It's more of a statement on society and how weird it is."
In recent weeks she has been photographed hand-in-hand with Pattinson, who once dated his "Twilight" costar Kristen Stewart.
Last week the couple was spotted together at Venice Beach in Los Angeles and they appear to be growing more serious. Pattinson recently revealed that he is considering moving from Los Angeles back to his native city of London, where Barnett is based.
"I think I might be done with Los Angeles. I've just realized that in the past few weeks," he told The Independent's Radar magazine. "I think I need to spend more time in London, or just move around a bit more. I've been in LA for six or seven years or something and it's weird."