Gina Rodriguez is stepping back into that scary space to explain why she’s not “anti-black.””
The Jane the Virgin star responded to the critics who called her such over comments she made a couple months ago about the complexities of equal pay.
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During the Net-a-Porter roundtable, the 34-year-old actress admitted she was “petrified” to discuss the nitty gritty of pay equality from an intersectional aspect, explaining:
“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.”
Well, Gina was right to be petrified — her ranking Latina women at the bottom of the pay hierarchy set many a Twitic off.
Some accused the actress of erasing the Afro-Latino population from the equation, while others even claimed she suggested that black people were part of the problem as to why Latinos are not being paid more than other women of color.
Neither were true, according to the Annihilation star, who went from petrified to teary-eyed while attempting to clarify her earlier remarks in a new interview with SiriusXM’s Sway In The Morning.
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Hitting back at the critics who pointed out that Sofia Vergara is the highest paid actress in TV, Gina explained on Tuesday:
“I never said actresses. I wasn’t speaking about my industry. I always find it difficult to talk about equal pay as a woman who makes a substantial amount of money. 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.”
Tearing up, the actress explained that the backlash was extra hard to handle because the black community was the only community she related to growing up when watching TV. She continued:
“What I was saying, was that when we talk about equal pay, we have to talk about intersectionality because we all must rise. And so the backlash was devastating to say the least because the black community was the only community I looked towards growing up. We didn’t have many Latino shows and the black community made me feel like I was seen, so to get anti-black is to say I’m anti-family.”
But Gina also didn’t hesitate to mention that people outside the family — specifically, white and Asian communities — weren’t upset by her words. Lamenting how she wished we weren’t living “in a culture where we’re clickbait,” the actress added:
“That was really f**king hard. It was a really dark time for me. It made me get away from social media, because my mental health is much more important to me. Especially when, I know my intention. The last thing I want to do is put two underrepresented groups against each other. Our unification is our rise!”
Amen, sis!
Do U forgive Gina for her “anti-black” remarks? Do U think they were even “anti-black” in the first place?
Watch the discussion in her interview (below, around the 12:10 mark) and sound off in the comments!
[Image via Sway in the Morning/YouTube.]
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