Gina Rodriguez Gives Me Heebie-Jeebies

I may have a post praising Jane the Virgin, but let me make it clear: Gina Rodriguez is not her show.

Ms Rodriguez has found herself in hot water yet again, this time hammering the final nail in her career’s coffin. On October 15, 2019, Rodriguez posted the following video of herself singing along to Lauryn Hill’s verse in the Fugees song "Ready or Not" to her Instagram story.

What exactly is it about the video that makes it so unsettling? Is it her sly use of the N-word? Its accompanying smirk with an aura of entitlement? The mocking laughter that follows?

This isn’t the first time Rodriguez has been called out for being anti-black. Old videos have surfaced of the actress saying the N-word in previous professional endeavors, but most of the controversy surrounds her recent actions. When Marvel’s Black Panther's trailer was released, Rodriguez tweeted this:

When I first saw this tweet, I didn’t understand why Rodriguez was receiving so much backlash. It seemed like a genuine cry for Latinx representation in Hollywood. I realized the problem laid in the expression of its content, not the content itself. Rodriguez skated over Black Panther's implications for black representation in the entertainment industry, and even more so its implications for the industry's overall diversity, because it did not center on the Latinx minority group. Additionally, although not featured in Black Panther, Marvel actresses Zoe Saldana and Tessa Thompson are Afro-Latinas, a group that Rodriguez has seemingly discounted from her cause. Comparing black advances to Latinx advances in the entertainment industry actually weakens her argument; it is as if she is subtly suggesting that Latinx are not powerful enough to create change on their own. So much for her campaign for diversity in Hollywood.

Rodriguez stole the spotlight from black representation yet again during a promotional interview with Yara Shahidi for their animated film Smallfoot in October 2018. Shahidi is an American actress and political activist with Iranian and African-American roots who has appeared in the television show Black-ish. Below is the controversial clip from Rodriguez and Shahidi’s joint interview (skip to 2:01).

“For so many women” is a feminist version of “all lives matter.” Of course all lives matter; of course all women matter. That’s a given. Black lives and black women have been subjected to unequal socioeconomic and political treatment since the Portuguese introduced black slavery in the fifteenth century. They have endured discrimination in all forms, and it is vital to celebrate their many talents and triumphs despite constant adversity. This doesn’t devalue any other minority group’s achievements. It is more important now than ever before to lift one another up and rejoice in our successes, especially among women. Rodriguez’s unsolicited comment takes away from Shahidi’s personal accomplishments, as well as those of the black community, in the name of supporting women. What women might those be?

These two controversies make Rodriguez’s problem clear: good intentions, terrible executions. She undoubtedly deserves the criticism for her actions, but one cannot be so blinded by cancel culture so as to not understand her motivations.

Her most recent video has no motivation and no excuse.

Once Rodriguez’s PR team realized that people were responding negatively to the video and deleted it from her Instagram story, Rodriguez issued two apologies on Instagram. She apologized for having potentially offended viewers by simply singing along to her favorite song, as if that were the problem. I’ve lost count of what strike that is.

Rodriguez is the manifestation of willful ignorance. Time and time again, she has been criticized for anti-black comments, but continues to make them. She seems to have no desire to understand neither the nature of her mistakes nor their effects. No matter how hard she tries, Gina Rodriguez will never be black. For a woman who has built her career off of being Latina, why is she even trying?