Sofia Richie: People are racist around me because they do not realise I'm black

The daughter of Lionel Richie says she has experienced discrimination in her everyday life as people are unaware of her ethnicity

Sofia Richie (Getty)

The model Sofia Richie has spoken about people making racist comments around her, apparently ignorantly unaware she is black.

The 18-year-old daughter of Lionel Richie and Diane Alexander said while she has not experienced discrimination in the fashion world, she has in her hometown of Los Angeles.

“I’m very light, so some people don’t really know that I’m black,” she told Complex. “I’ve been in situations where people will say something kind of racist and I’ll step in and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, well, you’re light.’

“That still doesn’t cut it, buddy. It’s 2016, you better get your sh*t together before you get slapped out here.”

Her photo shoot accompanying the interview also included snakes– a nod to the emojis which flooded her Instagram page after she was rumoured to be dating Justin Bieber in August.

Following the abuse Richie received, Bieber then deleted his Instagram account after threatening to do so if the vitriol against Richie continued, much to the upset of his 79 million fans and followers.

Despite the snake reference in the shoot, Richie was reluctant to talk about her existent or non-existent relationship with the “Love Yourself” singer, hence the opening line to their profile: “Sorry – Sofia Richie does not want to talk about Justin Bieber”.