Myleene Klass has hit out at wealthy middle class families for the way they talk about their Filipino members of staff.
The star, who has a Filipino mother and Austrian father, admitted she is ‘shocked’ when she hears acquaintances talking in ‘derogatory’ terms about their South East Asian nannies.
The 42-year-old said she has confronted friends in the past about their language and they have admitted they had no idea they were being offensive.
Criticism: Myleene Klass has hit out at wealthy middle class families for the way they talk about their Filipino members of staff
Speaking to Charlotte Hawkins on the Last, Past and Blast podcast the mother of three said she was shocked at how people in her social circles treat their Filipino staff like their property.
‘I’m shocked,’ she admitted. ‘People do it so easily. I live in North London and I’ve seen it a lot, you hear it a lot. And it’s not seen as something that’s even seen as offensive.
‘You don’t own someone, you can’t say I’m going on holiday and say my Filipino girl is around for the summer, I’ve heard that so many times in some North London circles here.
‘My jaw’s just hit the floor. When I do say something it’s questioned why I feel I can say something because (they say) ‘You’re not like that’ but I am like that, I have Filipino heritage and you don’t own anybody and that kind of language is not appropriate any time.
Shocked: The star, who has a Filipino mother and Austrian father, admitted she is ‘shocked’ when she hears friends talking in ‘derogatory’ terms about their South East Asian nannies
‘If you put another word in, if I said ‘My English cleaner’ you’d look at me like ‘Why’s she put English in there?’ But its ok to say ‘My Filipino cleaner’. Why would you say that, she’s not your anything? It’s derogatory.
‘I’ve got friends who have said ‘My goodness, I have said those words and meant nothing by it but I won’t say them again.’ ‘
Myleene suggested that this attitude goes unchallenged because Filipinos don’t challenge it, for fear of getting sacked.
‘People say ‘You never hear them say anything’. The Filipino community will lose their jobs if they speak up, if they say anything,’ she said. ‘What do you want them to say?’
The former HearSay star also hit out at people who don’t come from a mixed ethnic minority background telling her how to refer to herself.
Family: Myleene is mother to Ava, 12, Hero, nine, from her relationship with her ex Graham Quinn and Apollo, 10 months, with her current partner Simon Motson
‘I was talking to someone the other day and they said “You shouldn’t call yourself mixed race, you should call yourself dual heritage, its offensive”‘.
‘I said “Hang on, you’re not mixed race, and you’re telling me what I should call myself”. And its these rules and regulations, that everybody feels in a position to say.
‘I don’t know what it’s like to be a black man living in America, I don’t know what it’s like to be a blonde woman living in the UK. But I do know what it’s like to have a Filipino mother and an Austrian father and to have the experiences that I have had.’
In June Myleene detailed the horrific racial abuse she experienced in her childhood and the prevalent prejudice she still witnesses.
The songstress, who was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, took to Instagram to reveal she was struggling to explain racism to her children amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
In her impassioned post, Myleene listed some of the horrendous slurs she has faced over the years, with a shocking list reading: ‘Chink. Slit eye. Number 69, Fried rice. Mongrel. Ping pong. Slut. All Tai girls are sluts. Banana’.
Discussing her own experiences – yet conceding she cannot understand the struggles in the US – Myleene shared the lengthy caption beneath a childhood snap.
Myleene opened the post with explaining what she is working to do by revealing the struggles she has faced in her past. She wrote: ‘I’m trying so hard to explain the complexities of racism to my children. How it happens…
Shocking: In June Myleene detailed the horrific racial abuse she experienced in her childhood and the prevalent prejudice she still witnesses
‘How whilst I don’t understand the struggles a black person living in America might be experiencing, how I do understand and know my own experience of being a mixed race Filipino girl growing up in Norfolk…
‘I had those words thrown at me. On other occasions, it wasn’t just words, it was rock filled snowballs by a group of boys as I walked home, I had my hair cut in the school cloakrooms by some girls, later they threatened a lighter…
‘There was spitting. Why does your mum speak like that? Why don’t you have an accent? ‘I was born here. Yeah, but you don’t belong here’…
‘I also remember the pride and relief I felt when a bus of school children, aged 10 pulled up next to my own bus and the children opposite all started making ‘Chinese eyes and buck teeth’ to then have my own bus retaliate with fist signs and fingers…
Heartfelt: The songstress, who was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk took to Instagram to reveal she was struggling to explain racism to her children amid the BLM movement
‘It was small ‘victory’, I felt embarrassed, hot, shamed but I remember it so well because for the first time, I didn’t feel alone, I had a small token of solidarity that gave me courage’.
Speaking about her experiences at college, she went on: ‘At college, I walked into the canteen only to have a group of students hand me their trays loaded up with dirty plates. You’re Filipino, you’re all cleaners right? Then the laughter.’
Speaking about how she is now living with and addressing the issues, she went on: ‘The world looks different now. I am mixed race and I am so proud of that…
‘Growing up in Norfolk, there wasn’t much visibility as to what a girl like me could aspire to be. I was surrounded by incredible, selfless nurses and those in service (the same who are tending our covid patients and dropping like flies’