Mel B has revealed she was sent racist hate mail after buying a mansion in 1998 at the height of her Spice Girls fame. The singer said she was sent the vile letters after she bought a mansion in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. ‘The fact I bought it disturbed the whole village,’ she told The Sun. ‘I got not just hate mail but racist hate mail, which was shocking to me. It said, “Get out of this village, you don’t belong, you can’t buy something like this . . .”’ Mel added, ‘It disturbed me but I still threw some great parties there – really loud to disturb the village.’
It isn't the first time the musician has spoken candidly about her experience of racism while she was in the group. Speaking in a recent interview, following the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd - who died in police custody after a white officer knelt on his neck - the singer also said she felt the need to protect her identity while she was in the girl group.
Recalling one incident at the beginning of the group's career, Mel said she was asked by a stylist to wear her hair straight in the Wannabe video, but that she ‘refused point-blank.’ ‘My hair was my identity,’ the singer told the Daily Star. ‘And yes it was different to all the other girls but that was what the Spice Girls were about – celebrating our differences.’ Mel added that it was a ‘big deal’ to her when she would then receive thankful letters from fans and their mums ‘saying how incredible it was that they had someone to “be” when they did dances in the playground at school’.
Mel stressed that the only reason she wanted to do the interview was to highlight the issue, saying, 'So much of the racism you feel as a person of colour growing up in a largely white culture is not spoken aloud.'
‘Being told off at school for not being able to tie your hair back with a hair band, walking into meeting after meeting with the Spice Girls and never seeing another brown face – that does affect you,' she added.
She also recalled ‘obvious racism’ which happened during her time in the group, such as when she was asked to leave a designer store when she was looking for an outfit ahead of a performance the Spice Girls were due to give in front of Prince Charles and Nelson Mandela. 'All the girls had a go at the assistant because they were so shocked,' she said. 'It's pretty awful to think I wasn't actually shocked because if you are brown then there's always a part of you that expects some confrontation.'
Mel also revealed that she took Geri to an 'old school underground blues and bass club' in Leeds to help her ‘understand what it is to be black or brown.’ She added, 'I said to Geri: “Look around and tell me what you see” and she looked round and said: “Everyone else in here is black except me.” And I said: "That's what it's like for me nearly every day. I'm always the only brown girl in the room."'
In the interview, Mel also spoke about what it was like for her growing up in Leeds, saying she was victim of racial slurs as she was chased home by other kids.
The singer says she’s proud of protesters, and told the paper that she has been educating herself by 'watching films like Ava DuVernay's 13th which is all about race and the justice system in America’ as well as having conversations with her friends about racism.
READ MORE: Why Mel B Is The Most Important Black British Woman In Popular Culture