Racist abuse drives Fifth Harmony's Normani Kordei off Twitter

Fifth Harmony‘s Normani Kordei has taken a break from Twitter following a surge in racist tweets directed her way, making her at least the second black female celebrity—after Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones—to be driven off the social media platform in the last month by verbal abuse.

“I am taking a break from Twitter for now,” the 20-year-old “Work From Home” singer tweeted on Saturday, per ONTD. “Over the past four years of being in the public eye I’ve learned to grow a thick skin…but over the course of the last week and especially over the last 48 hours…I’ve been racially cyber bullied with tweets and pictures so horrific and racially charged that I can’t subject myself any longer to the hate.”

In a separate ONTD post, community member LYDIAINTHESKY noted that a lot of the awful tweets aimed at Kordei—which include violent words and imagery—are coming from within the fandom. In response, the other four members of Fifth Harmony—a pop music girl group formed during the second season of The X Factor four years ago—have taken to social media to show their support for Kordei and to ask their fans to think twice before flippantly hurling racist abuse at people, pop stars or not.

“Racism is something that not one of us tolerate,” 20-year-old Lauren Jauregui tweeted on Sunday. “The hatred associated with racism…has no place in the hearts of any human, much less any one of our beautiful fans who represent us. Racism is a product of ignorance and systematic oppression and we stand for peace and love and equality. Normani is a beautiful, intelligent, talented black woman and she should never have to fear that the last adjective could diminish any of the other beautiful attributes this woman exemplifies daily.”