Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez apologized to her followers after she said the N-word while singing a song on Instagram Live.
The video of Rodriguez singing The Fugees’ Ready or Not on Instagram Live quickly circulated on social media, with many of her followers calling her out for using the word.
Rodriguez sang Lauryn Hill’s line in the song: “Bless you if you represent the Fu/But I’ll hex you with some witch’s brew if you’re doo-doo/Voodoo; I can do what you do, easy/Believe me, fronting n—-s give me heebie-jeebies.”
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(WARNING: The video below contains explicit language.)
Many people on social media began to criticize Rodriguez, who is Puerto Rican, for saying the word.
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Some people on social media compared it to Jennifer Lopez using the word in I’m Real and Fat Joe, who is also Puerto Rican, using the word many times in his songs.
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Rodriguez issued an apology shortly after the video was criticized on social media.
“Hey, what’s up everybody. I just wanted to reach out and apologize. I am sorry. I am sorry if I offended anyone by singing along to The Fugees, to a song I like, that I grew up on. I love Lauryn Hill and um… I really am sorry if I offended you,” Rodriguez said in a video.
The Miss Bala actress issued a second apology on Instagram.
“The word I sang carries with it a legacy of hurt and pain that I cannot even imagine,” Rodriguez wrote. “I feel so deeply protective and responsible to the community of colour but I have let this community down. I have some serious learning and growing to do and I am so deeply sorry for the pain I have caused.”
This comes after Rodriguez addressed comments she made that many people interpreted as anti-Black in January.
During an appearance on Sway in the Morning, the 35-year-old actress said, “The backlash was devastating to say the least. The black community was the only community I looked to growing up. We didn’t have that many Latino shows, so the black community made me feel like I was seen. So to get anti-black is saying that I’m anti-family.”
“If anything, the black community is my community. When I speak about Latino advocacy, people think I’m only talking about people who are my skin color, but little do they know that I’m very aware of what my culture is,” said said.
The comments in question came from a Net-a-Porter roundtable in November 2018 where Rodriguez made comments about equal pay.
“I get so petrified in this space talking about equal pay, especially when you look at the intersectional aspect of it,” she said during the talk. “Where white women get paid more than black women, and 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.”
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