“Jane the Virgin” star Gina Rodriguez confronted a social media firestorm after saying the N-word on Instagram while singing The Fugees hit “Ready or Not.” She has since deleted her post and issued an apology, which many people dismissed as weak and insincere.
This prompted Rodriguez to offer a longer and more serious apology.
This isn’t the first time that Rodriguez had faced adverse reactions to her statements. She was slammed in 2018 during a roundtable discussion on gender pay after implying that Black women are paid more than Latinas. “I get so petrified in this space talking about equal pay, especially when you look at the intersectional aspect of it, right? Where White women get paid more than Black women, Black women get paid more than Asian women, Asian women get paid more than Latina women, and it’s like a very scary space to step into,” she said.
People immediately pointed out that Sofia Vergara was the highest-paid actress for seven years in a row. For this year’s list of highest-paid actresses, Vergara is also the only woman of color included as noted by Forbes.
Rodriguez addressed the issue by expressing that her statement was taken out of context. “I never said actresses, I wasn’t speaking about my industry,” she said. “As somebody who came from poverty to now the amount of money I get paid, it doesn’t feel right that I’m the one talking about it, because I’m so damn grateful. What I was saying, was that when we talk about equal pay, we have to talk about intersectionality because we all must rise.”
In July 2018, Rodriguez faced more criticism after she tweeted about Marvel and DC not casting Latinos in their films. Twitter users called her out for failing to acknowledge actresses like Tessa Thompson and Zoe Saldana, who starred in “Thor Ragnarok” and “Guardians of the Galaxy,” respectively.
Yamikani Msosa, an equity consultant, told Flare that Rodriguez “is missing an understanding of structural factors that contribute to inequity and that it’s not necessarily about pitting women of color against other women of color.”
“It’s more than just a comment. Whether or not she wants to acknowledge it, this is a systemically held belief around anti-black racism—and she needs to work that shit out,” Msosa said.
Photo courtesy of Gina Rodriguez’s Instagram Account
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