In the span of a few hours actress Gina Rodriguez ignited a Twitter storm Tuesday when she casually sang along to the Fugees on her Instagram Story and did not censor herself using the n-word.
The former “Jane the Virgin” star was getting her hair and makeup done and decided to share a video of her singing along to “Ready or Not.”
“Voodoo, I can do what you do, easy, believe me,” Rodriguez sings as a makeup artist pats eyeshadow on her lids. “N—as give me hee-bee-gee-bees.”
The TV-turned-movie star then turns to the side and chuckles. But many of those who glimpsed the footage didn’t find it funny. The video swiftly circulated online to other social media websites, and the public eagerly tore into Rodriguez.
“can’t wait for mrs gina rodriguez to break down into fake tears when she gets interviewed about this💕”
“gina rodriguez isnt some ditz who needs pr training, shes anti-black & she gets a kick out of seeing how far she can push boundaries”
“The second word of this song is N—A, and this guy didn’t say it…so you have NO excuse Gina. See how easy it is. #ginarodriguez #ginarodriguezisoverparty,” one person tweeted of a video of a white German man singing Nigerian artist Burna Boy’s “Ye.”
Still, some felt the upset should be spread to include Latinx rappers Big Pun and Fat Joe among others.
“Until y’all tell Fat Joe, Tekashi 69, Eminem and Cypress Hill, to stop saying the N word, HAVE A SEAT”
“So you’re against Fat Joe saying it in every song too right?”
Rodriguez ultimately removed the video and posted a video apology following the outrage.
“I am sorry if I offended anyone by singing along to the Fugees, to a song I love that I grew up on. I love Lauryn Hill,” she said. “I really am sorry if I offended you.”
But that only led to worse reactions and accusations that she did not mean her apology.
“This ‘apology’ is atrocious.”
“i’m sorry, but i cackled at this apology. she sounds like her publicist held a gun to her head and told her to say sorry 😂😂😂”
“This is an example of someone being deliberately obtuse. Gina Rodriguez KNOWS she offended people, not for singing a song but for saying the N-word. If the apology is going to be insincere, just keep quiet.”
Rodriguez followed her video apology up with a longer one that she posted to Instagram early Wednesday. It came amid the emergence of an undated but seemingly older video of her playing a character who demands her boyfriend to “take a lap, n—a!”
This is only the latest controversy for Rodriguez when it comes to her relationship to the Black community.
When asked by Latino magazine Remezcla in 2018 what her ideal superhero flick would entail, she said “it would be about Christopher Columbus coming over, the migration of the Spaniards, and the influence of the mixes [of people] in South America and in the Caribbean.” The remark led people to accuse her of glossing over what they called the rape and forced assimilation of Black people in the Western Hemisphere.
Later that same year, she was slammed for correcting an interviewer during a press run for the animated film “Smallfoot.”
“You are just goals for so many young black women,” Xilla Valentine said to Yara Shahidi, Rodriguez’s co-star.
“So many women. Women,” Rodriguez interjected.
And by that November, the actress got lit up when she proclaimed Black actresses are paid more than their Asian and Latina counterparts.
