UPDATE 4/17/20 3:20 P.M. PST: Well, that got resolved as fast as a very special episode of Boy Meets World, didn’t it?
Just hours after Trina McGee’s call-out of her former castmates for racism went viral on Thursday, the actress shared another post on her IG making it all perfectly clear who she was talking about. Well, one of them anyway…
The male colleague who called her Aunt Jemima was none other than Will Friedle, aka Eric Matthews. She wrote:
“FOR THE RECORD: WILL FRIEDLE the man responsible for AuntJemmagate, apologized to me 22 years ago and again days ago in a in a three-page letter. We talked more on it and he acknowledged that he really wasn’t educated enough in his early twenties to know he was truly offending me. THIS SHOULD AND COULD BE A TEACHING MOMENT FOR ALL.”
To put things in perspective, she then gave everyone an example of more “extreme racism” her grandfather had to face in South Carolina in the early 20th century. She finished by saying:
“Will apologized to me and I forgave him, I then apologized to him for making the statements public because his joke came out of just not knowing, not viciousness and he forgave me. That’s what friends do.”
See her full (and probably final) statement on the matter (below):
Oh man, this is so disappointing to hear! The cast of Boy Meets World always seemed like such a wholesome gang — but racism really does live in those places, too.
According to the actress who played Angela, longtime love interest of Shawn, three of her co-stars exhibited especially rude behavior towards her — including some pretty clearly racist bullying.
Related: Another Boy Meets World Alum Is Doing Porn Now!
Back in January, Trina McGee, now 50 (and still looking AMAZING, btw), opened up about what she experienced while filming the classic family sitcom, tweeting:
“Called aunt Jemima on set during hair and make up. Called a bitter bitch when I quietly waited for my scene to finish rehearsing that was being f’ed up over and over due to episode featuring my character. Told ‘ it was nice of you to join us’ like a stranger after 60 episodes”
Aunt Jemima. Wow. How disgusting.
When someone suggested she talk to the offenders, Trina revealed she had — and that it hadn’t gone very well:
“One reply was that calling me Aunt Jemima was the same as calling me The Jolly Green Giant. Just a fictional food character. I could care less what people call me until the vibe starts to block coins. This is the difference between prejudice and racism.”
Another fan said they wondered why she was so often left out in conversations about the show then said sorry for the experience with the cast and crew. Trina clarified she was not talking about the crew but specifically three of her co-stars:
“I’m left out because of fear and jealousy. Crew was always great. Talking about three acting colleagues.”
She said of the co-stars:
“I did my job and I expect my due. At times the tension of the disrespect was extremely stressful. 25 yrs old at the time raising a family and did not deserve to be thinking about this. None of those three colleagues had children. Just cowardly egos and hot diarrhea mouths.”
OMG, “cowardly egos and hot diarrhea mouths.” Amazing. Trina really missed her calling as a writer!
When asked if she was planning on naming which three cast members, she replied:
“They should name themselves. When a colleague says ‘I don’t want anyone in my scene that is female or around me. ‘ be bold enough to own up to why you are doing this. You don’t have to be inspected gadget to figure it out. I plan on enjoying the squirm of cowards.”
Dayum! Thankfully for many followers she did at least clear one name: Rider Strong, who played her on-again, off-again boyfriend for years. Phew! Still crushworthy all these years later.
As for those other three? We don’t know exactly whom she is referring to, but there aren’t a lot of suspects left.
When you’re talking about which cast members she actually shared a lot of scenes with, it’s basically down to stars Ben Savage, Danielle Fishel, and Will Friedle. We don’t want to believe this of any of them, but who else could she be talking about??
Thankfully there is a bit of a happy ending to all this…
On Wednesday, three months after the initial spillage, Trina gave an update on Instagram Live, saying the male co-star who had made the “Aunt Jemima” joke in the first place had reached out and apologized. She relayed he had told her it was an important teachable moment in his life that had made him grow and change his behavior. Well, isn’t that nice?
She also blamed some of the bitterness in those tweets on “PMSing” — which may be a little too generous but OK. However, she finished with some excellent high roading, saying she loved all her former castmates “even without getting some of the love back.”
Nice.
Who do YOU think she was talking about?
[Image via ABC/YouTube.]
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