Gina Rodriguez Blasted After She Posts Video Saying The N-Word, Reigniting Anti-Black Criticism

Actress Gina Rodriguez had social media furious Tuesday after she posted a video to her Instagram story that showed her saying the N-word, which led social media users to reignite past claims that the actress was anti-black.

Rodriguez has since deleted the video, though users captured the clip from her Instagram story on Tuesday, which shows Rodriguez sitting in a chair getting makeup applied and her hair styled. She sings along to the 1996 track “Ready or Not” by The Fugees, which contains the N-word. Rodriguez looks directly into the camera while she says the word before looking off camera and giggling with someone next to her.

Social media users were quick to point out their frustration with the actress, who after 3 p.m. apologized on her Instagram story to anyone she had offended, claiming that she grew up listening to the song by The Fugees and loved the song.

“Gina Rodriquez is such an embarrassment to the Latinx community!” one user wrote on Twitter. “Why does she think she’s our spokesperson?! We don’t know her!!”

Others were more pointed in calling Rodriguez anti-black.

“Gina Rodriguez is an example of the bold anti-blackness of non-black people of colour,” another said. “Black people keep telling ya’ll not to use our reclaimed slurs, & here you go on your IG story mouthing along to a song saying ‘n****,’ playing all in our faces. Ugly, racist, & disrespectful.”

It’s not the first time that the Jane The Virgin actress has been accused of being anti-black. As The Cut noted in January, Rodriguez has a history of facing similar accusations. Particularly, Rodriguez has, in the past, been accused of making comments that pit black women and Latina women against each other.

In 2017, Rodriguez faced criticism following a tweet she sent amid ongoing promotion for Marvel’s Black Panther, which featured a primarily black cast. The actress seemed to commend both Marvel and DC for making more inclusive movies, but she tweeted asking when similar treatment would be provided to Latinx people.

As The Cut noted, Rodriguez was criticized as her comments seemed to ignore the Latinx actors and actress already starring in Marvel and DC Comics movies. She was also criticized as some viewed the tweet’s timing as inappropriate, as Black Panther was the first superhero film with a predominately black cast.

The actress, who turned 35 earlier this year, also received criticism after she notably interjected when her Small Foot costar Yara Shahidi was asked about what it was like to be a role model to black women. Rodriguez chimed in before Shahidi could start to answer, seeming to correct the interviewer by saying that Shahidi was a role model to “so many women.”

The comment was accused of attempting to diminish conversations that were specifically meant to be about black women.

Then, in November of last year, Rodriguez again received criticism when she spoke on a panel about diversity in Hollywood. Rodriguez claimed that Latina women make less than white, black, and Asian women. As The Cut noted, while Rodriguez’s claims about the wage gap were true on a general basis, they were true among women in Hollywood, which is what the discussion was about.

When Rodriguez was asked about those comments in an interview in January of this year, she began to cry and claimed that the backlash was hurtful as she had looked to the black community growing up, citing a lack of Latinx representation, per The Cut.

“So to get anti-black is saying that I’m anti-family,” Rodriguez said.”My father is dark-skinned, he’s Afro-Latino … If anything, the black community is my community. As Latinos, we have black Latinos. That is what we are. I am not, so I think that when I speak about Latino advocacy people believe I only mean people of my skin color.”

Although she apologized, The Cut noted that many found her apology insufficient.