Gina Rodriguez is jealous, obsessed, and uncomfortable with the successes of Black women, and demonstrates a fake happy demeanor anytime Black women or their accomplishments are praised, whilst using our visibility or accomplishments as a platform to create opportunities for certain Latinas like when she proposed a Latin version of Girl’s Trip and a Latin superhero film after much talk about the record-breaking Black Pantheror she diverts a conversation to be inclusive for “ALL women.” Like that time she tried to correct the interviewer below.
Go to the 2:00 mark.
The exchange probably appears to be an innocent complementary gesture by Gina towards Yara for people who are unaware of the usual overstepping sentiment of hers. Yara is indeed a great role model for young women. But correcting an interviewer so you can feel comfortable and included in a statement that solely praises the representation of a young Black woman for her fellow young Black women is fucking rude and uncalled for.
There are people of color who only care about phrases like “inclusivity” and “representation” solely when it benefits their race and/or ethnicity and they want the efforts of others—particularly Black people—to do the work for them.
Now with Gina’s recent remarks, she stated the following:
Her full statement: “I get so petrified in this space talking about equal pay, especially when you look at the intersectional aspect of it, right? Where white women get paid more than Black women, 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 because I always feel like I fail when I speak about it because I can’t help but feel already so gracious to do what I do and I feel like, culturally, I feel like I was raised to just feel so appreciative of getting here.“
I’m not about to play no oppression Olympics over which race/ethnicity of actresses gets paid the least, but I’ma just leave this right here:
Back to the tweet by HP Latino Voices and Gina’s statement. Notice anything?
Pairing the long fought for achievements of Black people (Black women, in this case) with a “What about us Latinxs?” attitude is not only anti-Black AF, but continues to push for and perpetrate the erasure of Latinxs who are predominantly of African descent that is carried out and historically embedded in the DNA of Latin America.
BLACK LATINAS EXIST. BLACK LATINOS EXIST.
Not Black or Latinx. Black AND Latinx. Latinx is not a race, whereas Black is.
But when you’re Gina and do deliberate things like hosting a “Latina Power Lunch” and only invite certain shades and types of Latinas,
or longing for a colonialist superhero movie if she would pen one,
“I think 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. That’s were my superhero movies would lay, like the 1400 or 1500s.” (Source)
how can one not suspect an agenda?…
On the same day the cast of Black Panther attended San Diego Comic Con and articles were being written left and right due to the film’s high anticipation, here goes Gina…
Carlos Valdes. Dania Ramirez. Gabriel Luna. Jessica Camacho….
Nevermind that some of that actresses listed are Black Latinas, which includes her homegirl Rosario….
Gina has even acknowledged shes afro latina (you can fully expect her to bring it up again to block criticisms) yet is so tone deaf. Fucking yikes.
I hate people like Gina Rodriguez. Bring up afrolatinidad like a playing card, something she can add to resumé and not a lived experience. She makes it harder for us afrolatine who have lived black experiences be seen. She contributes to black latine erasure. Surely shes one of those high yellow mestiza puerto ricans who believes we are all “las tres razas, blanco indio y negro!” Like fuck outta here, I’m proudly afro-caribeño and I have the culture and lived experiences, and I know my family history, where we were enslaved, then you got these assimilated colonial PRs who claim afrolatinidad to avoid critique and be seen as more interesting, despite no connection to community. She is not one of us, and please dont view her as such, and do not utilize her to erase the rest of us, especially our brothers and sisters who are darker and face worse fates. Dont let this hexadecaroon’s theatrics contribute to ongoing erasure.
