John Legend and wife Chrissy Teigen had just touched down at JFK Airport on January 19 when a paparazzo reportedly said to Teigen, ‘If we evolved from monkeys, why is John Legend still around?’
Legend, 38, addressed the incident while at the January 22 Sundance Film Festival, expressing that he wasn’t surprised at the man’s language.
“Black folks have had to deal with being called monkeys for a long time, and dehumanization has always been kind of a method of racism and subjugation of black people and that’s just part of American history — and it’s part of the present, apparently,” Legend said. “I’m not hurt by someone saying that to me because I’m smarter, I’m stronger.”
Image via Instagram/johnlegend