According to TMZ, after a night’s performance at the Pantages Theater in L.A., Fantasia was reading her fan mail and became frightened over a letter she ran across loaded with racial slurs — including the N-word — and a line that read, “go back where you came from and die.”
Fantasia’s manager says the person who wrote the letter claims he used to work as a security guard for Fox while Fantasia was on “A.I.” She also said that Fantasia immediately contacted theater security — which then contacted the LAPD … and they sent in Kevin Costner to monitor her every … well, got a little carried away; that would be a scene from The Bodyguard.
At any rate, the theater has reportedly “beefed up” security around the singer, and all over the venue, and will be screening anything sent to her dressing room before it gets to her.
“I will not be defeated by one isolated person’s hatred,” she said in a statement to TMZ.
It’s shameful that a person of any race or creed has to endure vitriol and threats from those that just won’t accept the fact that the tapestry of the world is supposed to include many colors and cultures. And it’s even more disturbing that a simple recording artist-actress would be a target of something more sensibly — though still ignorantly — geared toward one that was of some political affiliation or threatening social movement. Fantasia’s just innocently trying to pay the bills. –gerald radford
