Just yesterday, a video of Gina Rodriguez saying the n-word while reciting lyrics to "Ready or Not" by the Fugees was removed from her Instagram story. The video shows Rodriguez singing along to the song while getting her hair and makeup done. It followed with an apology from the Jane the Virgin star. But many have dismissed the apology as being insincere. Rather, the apology seemed like she was giving a reason as to why she said the n-word instead of addressing why she shouldn't have said due to the history behind the word. Her exact words in the apology video were "I am sorry if I offended anyone by singing along to The Fugees, to a song I love that I grew up on." She didn't apologize for her use of the word, so the post seems disingenuous.
This isn't the first time Gina Rodriguez has been caught for being problematic. This remark, intentional or not, from Rodriguez was against the black community. Last year, the actress was accused of erasing black women during an interview she had with Yara Shahidi when they were promoting Smallfoot. The interviewer had said to Shahidi "You are just goals for so many young black women." In the video clip, it seemed that Rodriguez cut in and corrected the interviewer by saying "For so many women. Women." Rodriguez had, in a sense, evoked the all lives matter spirit to the subject at hand. The interviewer appropriately responded saying "Yeah, for women too, but for black women we need people on a whole other level."
She also came under fire when discussing equal pay in Hollywood during a roundtable discussion with the outlet Net-a-Porter. She said "I get so petrified in this space talking about equal pay, especially when you look at the intersectional aspect of it, right?" She went on to say "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." While her statements weren't necessarily wrong, they did gloss over the lack of representation and racial inequality black actresses face in Hollywood. Gina Rodriguez did address this issue as well by responding that pitting "two underrepresented groups against each other" is the last thing she wanted to do.
Now, we shouldn't "cancel" Gina Rodrgiuez, but I do think she should educate herself on matters of other marginalized communities. She is a thorough advocate of the latino community and pushes for more representation in Hollywood. I hope that she can learn from her mistakes and understand the history behind the n-word and why the n-word shouldn't be said by non-black people.
