Jane the Virgin’s Gina Rodriguez has become the subject of a Twitter storm today after she posted an Instagram stories video of her rapping along to Ready or Not by the Fugees, while having her makeup done.
In the famous song, Lauryn Hill raps ‘I can do what you do, easy, believe me/Fronting [n-word]s give me hee-bee-gee-bees’, which Rodriguez copied in full.
She posted the video last night, quickly deleting it after the backlash began, but not before quick-fingered Instagram users screen-recorded the video and shared it far and wide.
Twitter quickly became flooded with people furious about the Puerto Rican actor’s use of the offensive word.
This isn’t the first time Rodriguez has raised eyebrows in conversations about ethnicity. Twitter users were quick to bring other instances to the fore, with many saying they had believed Rodriguez has held anti-black views for a while.
In 2017, Rodriguez tweeted her reaction to Black Panther, which had a predominantly black cast, saying; ‘Marvel and DC are killing it in inclusion and women but where are the Latinos?! Asking for a friend...’
READ MORE: Black Panther And The Importance Of Black Superheroes
In 2018 she interrupted interviewer Blogxilla when he said that Rodriguez’s Smallfoot co-star Yara Shahidi was an inspiration to so many black women. ‘So many women,’ Rodriguez said, before being told by Blogxilla that, actually, black women ‘need people on a whole ‘nother level.’
Just a few months later, Rodriguez hosted a Latina Power Lunch with America Ferrera, and posted pictures showing guests who the internet pointed out were mostly fair-skinned. When asked why she didn’t invite any AfroLatinx people, she reportedly said she had invited them, but they didn’t come.
Many will remember Rodriguez’s tearful apology late last year on radio show Sway in the Morning. It came after she incorrectly stated that black and Asian actresses are paid more in Hollywood than Latina actresses during a roundtable on diversity, which isn’t true.
Rodriguez said she was ‘devasted’ by the backlash she faced about her incorrect claim, saying on the radio show: ‘The black community was the only community I looked towards growing up. We didn’t have many Latino shows, and the black community made me feel like I was seen.
'To get [called] anti-black is [like] saying I’m anti-family. My father is dark-skinned, he’s Afro-Latino. My cousins — Puerto Ricans are African, Taino, and Spaniard, and it’s in my blood. So that was devastating to me. And I know my heart. I know what I meant. And I really wish we weren’t living in a culture where we’re clickbait, because I’ve never said anything controversial about anybody.’
With this fresh outrage comes a fresh apology from Rodriguez. She posted a video to her Instagram story saying; ‘I am sorry if I offended anyone by singing along to The Fugees, to a song I love that I grew up on.’
Many saw this apology as disingenuous, which is likely the reason why she posted another statement to her Instagram feed today, which acknowledges the hateful history of the n-word; ‘The word I sang, carries with it a legacy of hurt and pain that I cannot even imagine,' she wrote.
She has since closed the comments on that Instagram post, and ended it saying; ‘I have some serious learning and growing to do and I am so deeply sorry for the pain I have caused.’