Tan France Reveals Why He Prefers Experiencing Racism in America Over England

Tan France is getting candid about the racism he’s faced as a Pakistani man.

In an interview on Hasan Minhaj‘s Hasan Minhaj Doesn’t Know podcast, posted on Wednesday, July 8, the Queer Eye alum, 43, revealed that while he’s faced both racism in England and the United States, the racist attacks he’s faced while across the pond have been more palatable.

“I was able to move to a place where even if they were racist, they didn’t know how to be racist towards me,” France told Minhaj, 40, in the clip shared on Thursday, July 9. “And I know that sounds really lame to want that.”

While France acknowledged that any and all racist slurs thrown his way are unacceptable, the insults he’s been met with in America pale in comparison to the vitriol he grew up hearing.

“I’ll take that and you thinking, ‘I want to [expletive] call him something. Where the [expletive] is he from? I don’t know how to hurt him,'” France explained. “As opposed to, ‘I know exactly what to say, you dirty [expletive].'”

Minhaj, who boasts Indian heritage, asked France why the phrase, a slur aimed at those of Pakistani descent, holds so much weight for the Deli Boys star and so many others.

“It’s just a word that’s not used in the U.S., but for a lot of my friends that are South Asian, this word was used as a way to bully and beat them up, basically,” Minhaj shared.

“I can’t even tell you what that word still does to me,” France replied, adding that it wasn’t long ago that he was called the slur while on a visit back to England.

“Somebody called me a [expletive] not too long ago, after Queer Eye, in England, and I thought, stupidly, I thought, ‘I’ve reached some kind of success, whatever your idea of success is,'” France recalled. “I just thought, ‘I am successful. I was wealthy. I was on a very successful TV show. My life was in a good place.’ And then I get called a [expletive] from some scum on the street.”

The moment took France off guard, with the reality star admitting no matter how many times he’s heard the term, the sting of it never fully goes away.

“And I just thought, ‘What the [expletive] is this? How is it possible that’s still happening?’ And it takes you right back, and you feel physically sick thinking, ‘Oh my God, no matter what success I see, it doesn’t negate the fact that so many of you will just see me as that thing which you find disgusting.'”

France has been in the United States since before his time on Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot, with the fashion expert, who famously lived in Utah with his husband, Rob, revealing earlier this year that the couple decided to sell their Salt Lake City home and relocate to New York City.

“We’ve decided to move to the East Coast,” France said in a May Instagram post. “We live like senior citizens who are retired, and I might be old, but I’m not that old. And for the last 10 years or so, I’ve said no to almost everything because I already fly so much for work that I don’t want to go to New York just for events and to hang out with friends.”

In Utah, he continued, “we just live in this bubble, which, it’s gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but we’re not really living, we’re just kind of getting through life, and we’ve been talking about that the last few months, and we’ve decided that we’re going to move to New York.”