Gabrielle Union is keeping her foot on the entertainment industry’s next, and during a recent interview with Marie Claire, she spoke candidly about the reality of Black women being blackballed in Hollywood.
“These racist institutions and systems have done an amazing job at keeping us very fearful of speaking up, asking for equality, and asking for accountability, because they have shown us time and time again that we are disposable,” Union told the publication.
Union was fired from the show after urging producers to report an incident involving a racist joke. She also faced conflict with show boss, Simon Cowell, over his smoking on set, prohibited in California where the show is filmed.
She then filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing about an environment that the complaint described as a “snake pit of racial offenses.”
“I am one who calls people who continuously exhibit racist behavior racist,” she said of Cowell, “but for the super sensitive, I will say he has exhibited wildly problematic behavior.”
The Being Mary Jane actress says she was discriminated against because of her natural hair, with producers allegedly calling several of her hairstyles “too Black,” for television.
After speaking out, her former AGT colleague, Terry Crew, publicly spoke out against her — further proving her point.
“They will discredit and malign you, and you will never work again.…Being blackballed in this industry is very real,” Union asserts. “That is the beauty of being a Black woman. I should be able to exist however the (expletive) I want to exist, because if you’re hiring Gabrielle Union for my talent, then my talent is going to come out of my body in every way.”
