The generally somewhat publicity-shy Robert Pattinson has stepped into the spotlight today to speak up about the racist abuse that his girlfriend Tahliah Debrett Barnett – the artist currently known as FKA Twigs – regularly cops online.
In a recent interview with NME, Pattinson noted that he is surprised by the “relentless” attacks she has received, ever since the two of them became romantically involved.
Speaking about how the abuse directed at Barnett has coloured his impression of the internet in general, Pattinson said:
“I was talking to my dad about this and I bet him that if he looked up Nelson Mandela’s funeral on YouTube, the first comment would be a racist one. And it was, with like a million upvotes. What I don’t get is why. I think it’s because most normal people are not commenters – I’ve never met anyone who’s left a comment on anything. It’s just demons who live in basements. You have this weird thing where you end up trying to fight against this faceless blob, where the more you hate it, the bigger it gets, because it’s all in your head.”
Barnett herself, who is of Jamaican and Spanish heritage, spoke up late last year:
I am genuinely shocked and disgusted at the amount of racism that has been infecting my account the past week.
— FKA twigs (@FKAtwigs) September 28, 2014
Racism is unacceptable in the real world and it’s unacceptable online.
— FKA twigs (@FKAtwigs) September 28, 2014
In the same NME interview, Pattinson said that, while he tries to avoid social media, he has a “weird compulsion” to read the terrible things people say about him online, to “reinforce” his negative opinion of himself:
“I go through periods where I don’t do it at all and feel glorious! Then I’ll fall back into this pit. It really does affect you, and it all comes from some moron sitting on a comment board. It’s always that person who’s needling away at you, who you either want to destroy, or convince them to love you.”
via NME
Photo: Axelle / Bauer Griffin via Getty Images
Photo: Axelle / Bauer Griffin via Getty Images
