Hollywood’s ‘Jane the Virgin’ star, Gina Rodriguez has again, issued an apology for using the N-word in a video posted on her Instagram Story, Entertainment Weekly report.
The actress had on Tuesday posted a video of herself getting her hair and makeup done while singing along to one of Lauryn Hill‘s verses from “Ready or Not” by the Fugees, promptly sparking outrage on social media, the report added.
While most African-Americans who were not pleased, neither were they surprised about the video, were quick to remind those dragging her for saying the N-word that they warned how she has been an anti-black from her past remarks about blacks, but nobody listened. The 35-year-old Gina Rodriguez, who clearly did not realise she has used the N-word in her private video, seems to have vindicated them.
She had to take down the video when it was brought to her notice, and she subsequently issued an apology to the black community in another Instagram video she posted a few hours later.
She said:
“Hey, what’s up everybody — I just wanted to reach out and apologize,” she said. “I am sorry. I am sorry if I offended anyone by singing along to the Fugees, to a song that I love, that I grew up on. I love Lauryn Hill. And I really am sorry if I offended you.”
The actress later issued a more in-depth apology on her Instagram, calling the incident “humiliating” and said rewatching the video “has shaken me to my core.”
“In song or in real life, the words that I spoke, should not have been spoken,” Rodriguez said. “I thoughtlessly sang along to the lyrics of a favourite song, and even worse, I posted it. The word I sang, carries with it a legacy of hurt and pain that I cannot even imagine.”
“Whatever consequences I face for my actions today, none will be more hurtful than the personal remorse I feel,” she continued. “It is humiliating that this has to be a public lesson but it is indeed a much-deserved lesson.”
Gina Rodriguez finished her note by explaining how she felt terrible for disappointing the “community of colour.”
“I feel so deeply protective and responsible to the community of colour but I have let this community down,” she wrote. “I have some serious learning and growing to do and I am so deeply sorry for the pain I have caused.”
The actress since the video is now one of the top trending topics on Twitter as fans, especially the African-Americans, are voicing their disgust about her actions. They have also brought up her controversial remarks she made during a panel with Ellen Pompeo, Gabrielle Union and Emma Roberts for NET-A-PORTER in 2018.
“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 at the time.
Rodriguez’s comments sparked outrage from members of the black community, who pointed out that in 2018, the highest paid TV actress in the world was Sofia Vergara, a Latina actress from Colombia.
Rodriguez also faced backlash in 2017 after Black Panther was announced, when she tweeted, “Marvel and DC are killing it in inclusion and women but where are the Latinos?! Asking for a friend…”
Her latest blunder is bringing back old stories that she is now being labelled racist by fans.