Solange Knowles was denied entry into Miami Beach's Club Cameo when she tried to bring a 5-foot inflatable banana into the venue, and she had a confrontation with police officers that she attributes to racial discrimination, the Miami Herald reports.
When Knowles was bounced at the door, she became hostile, according to the Miami Beach Police Department.
Authorities said an off-duty police officer working at the Cameo took Knowles across the street. There, she says, an officer pulled out a knife and threatened to deflate the banana.
Her Twitter feed from the evening, as reported by the Miami Herald, tells her side of the story:
"I have literally had my last leg with discriminating police! Miami police department will be notified," she first tweeted. "A police officer just pulled a weapon on me…. I have done NOTHING illegal, against the law, or anything of the sort."
"I'm only tweeting this to raise awareness. I could have left quietly, but I am sick & tired of this scenario being played over & over again," she wrote. "It is time to do something about it. I am a mother raising a young black child in America. Im going to die trying!"
The police department is conducting an internal investigation into the incident. While the starring role that the banana plays in this narrative makes the story sound pretty silly, we shouldn't be too quick to dismiss Knowles' experience without a full understanding of the facts. After all, the relationship between law-enforcement officers and the black community is no laughing matter — even when the allegations first come through Twitter, and even when inflatable fruit is involved.
Read more at the Miami Herald.
In other news: VIDEO: Returning and Rebuilding After Katrina.