Nadiya Hussain has sent a fierce message after revealing she was turned down for a modelling job because she is black.
The Great British Bake Off star recalled applying for a hand modelling job when she was younger only to show up at the audition and be told her skin colour would ‘not sell jewellery’.
On Instagram Nadiya shared a picture of herself wearing a black hoodie, holding her hands up to the camera.
It was followed by a second pic where she held up her middle fingers to the camera.
She wrote in the caption about walking in to the audition and ‘the room went quiet…the room filled with white faces and white hands.’
The 35-year-old continued: ‘The receptionist stumbled. I sat down while she called someone in. I was met by a women who came and greeted me. I figured it was my turn to show off my hands. She said “im sorry I didn’t know you were black” “yes, right but the ad wanted hands, I have hands” “black hands don’t sell jewellery”.
‘That was her response. The blood rushed to my face. I was so embarrassed, I was now a deep shade of burgundy.
‘I never really thought about my hands, till the colour of the skin that covered them stopped me from getting a job. When you are a teenager, already a little lost, words like this stick.’
The TV cook went on: ‘Fast forward to my 30s and now my hands are in my cookbooks and in cookery shows, even now I look at them and still I have a seed of doubt embedded telling me that people must be disgusted by the sight of my brown hands.
‘But as you can see from my second picture, you know how I feel about it now. I use my hands with pride and allow them to grace cookbooks and cookery shows, to hold my chidrens hands and stroke their little faces, to cook, to feed… to hold!
‘I have since worked with Swarovski with these very hands, worn their jewellery with pride! When I worked with them they never knew the anxiety I felt at the thought of showcasing my hands, but I did it anyway!
‘We need to start representing with our voices, with our eyes, with our thoughts, with our hearts and with our hands! I am taking ownership back with my hands!’
It comes after the author admitted she has ‘experienced more racism in 5 years working in the TV/Food industry than any other time of my life’, adding that it’s ‘time to call it out’.
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