UPDATED 10/16, 8:45 a.m. ET: In addition to her brief apology on her Instagram Stories, Gina Rodriguez shared a written IG post further apologizing for her actions. “Watching my own video playing back at me, has shaken me to my core. It is humiliating that this has to be a public lesson but it is indeed a much deserved lesson," reads part of Rodriguez's apology. "I feel so deeply protective and responsible to the community of color but I have let this community down."
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Gina Rodriguez has issued an apology for dropping the N-word in a recent Instagram Stories update.
"Hey what’s up everybody, I just wanted to reach out and apologize. I’m sorry," she said in a subsequent story. "I’m sorry if I offended anyone by singing along to the Fugees, to a song I love, that I grew up on. I love Lauryn Hill, and I'm really sorry if I offended you."
The 35-year-old actress sparked outrage Tuesday, after she shared a video in which she was singing along to Lauryn Hill's verse on the Fugees' "Ready or Not."
"Voodoo; I can do what you do, easy," Gina recites in the video. "Believe me, fronting n***as give me heebie-jeebies."
This isn't the first time Rodriguez has found herself in hot water. Following a 2018 panel discussion on pay equity, Rodriguez was slammed for comments that many perceived as anti-black. The Jane the Virgin star spoke about the pay gaps among women of different races, stating Latina women made less than white and black women, on average.
"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," she said. "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."
Critics were quick to point out that the highest-paid TV actress at the time was Sofia Vergara—a Colombian-American actress who had reportedly earned $42.5 million from June 2017 to June 2018.
Rodriguez addressed the controversy during an appearance on Sway in the Morning, insisting her comments were misinterpreted and were not intended to offend.
"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," she explained. "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 when I speak about Latino advocacy, people believe I mean only my skin color."
Rodriguez's latest controversy arrived shortly after she was confirmed as a committee member for the Latinx House—a Time's Up and Justice for Migrant Women initiative that aims to support the Latinx community in and outside of Hollywood.
