This story has been updated
Actress Gina Rodriguez is being hit with backlash after she decided to address the racial pay gap among women during a recent conversation on Net-A-Porter's The Big Television Debate.
Among a group of women who also included Gabrielle Union, Emma Roberts, and Ellen Pompeo, the first topic on the chopping block was the massive inequalities that women face in the workplace. With both Pompeo and Rodriguez acknowledging that they at times feel ashamed to complain about pay inequalities when considering the working conditions of women in less glamorous positions, Rodriguez made note of statistics that show that Latina women typically make less across the board.
“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,” Rodriguez said during the round table discussion. “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.”
According to the National Partnership for Women & Families, Rodriguez's words were actually true outside of the scope of Hollywood with a recent study showing that "Black women are typically paid 61 cents, Native American women 58 cents and Latinas just 53 cents for every dollar paid to white, non-Hispanic men."
However, the actress's word raised raised a few red flags with the Internet under the assumption that her remarks applied to Hollywood's pay scale with users reminding Rodriguez that Colombian actress Sofia Vergara of Modern Family is television’s highest-paid actress according to Forbes. On that same list, Kerry Washington is the only black woman represented at No. 8. Some usrs attacked Rodriguez's use of the statistic in the wrong context while others used it as an opportunity to once again accuse her of anti-black sentiments or attempting to downplay the issues of black women, even saying that the actress fails to acknowledge Afro-Latina women.
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