On Saturday, Solange Knowles shared the details of an uncomfortable, racially-motivated incident she experienced at a Louisana Kraftwerk gig. In a series of since-deleted tweets posted shortly after the event, the singer revealed that she had been verbally abused by “four older white women”, who had taken issue with her dancing at the gig. According to Knowles, the group ordered her to “sit down”, before yelling “horrible, nasty” insults and throwing a lime at her while her back was turned.

“Let me tell you about why black girls / women are so angry,” the singer tweeted. “We are at an ELECTRONIC and DANCE music concert and you are telling… not asking me… to sit down. In front of my child.”

On Sunday, Knowles went into more detail about the incident, posting a powerful essay about her feelings to her Saint Heron website. The piece – titled “And Do You Belong? I Do” – explains the micro and macro aggressions the singer has had to face as a black woman, and the ingrained issues of being a minority in a “predominately white” space.

“Imagine. Telling your son and his friend Rasheed about a band you love and one that played a pivotal role in the history of hip-hop,” she begins. “About 20 seconds later, you hear women yell aggressively, ‘Sit down now, you need to sit down right now’ from the box behind you. You want to be considerate, however, they were not at all considerate with their tone, their choice of words, or the fact that you just walked in and seem to be enjoying yourself. You are also confused as to what show you went to. This is a band that were pioneers of electronic and dance music. Surely the audience is going to expect you to dance at some point.”

Knowles goes on to discuss the disappointing reaction to the incident, both on social media and in the press. “You know when you share this that a part of the population is going to side with the women who threw trash at you,” she writes. “You don’t feel that most of the people in these incidents do not like black people, but simply are a product of their white supremacy and are exercising it on you without caution, care, or thought.”

She adds: “After you think it all over, you know that the biggest payback you could ever had, was dancing right in front of them with my hair swinging from left to right, my beautiful black son and husband, and our dear friend Rasheed jamming the hell out with the rhythm our ancestors blessed upon us saying... We belong. We belong. We belong. We built this.”

Read the full essay on Saint Heron here.