The 'Jane the Virgin' star said the word while singing along to a song by The Fugees.
Gina Rodriguez has issued an apology after saying the N-word in a recent video on her Instagram Story.
The Jane the Virgin actress recently posted a video of herself getting her makeup done while singing along to The Fugee's "Ready or Not."
"Hey, what's up everybody -- I just wanted to reach out and apologize," Rodriguez said on her Instagram Story on Tuesday. "I am sorry. I am 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 really am sorry if I offended you."
Rodriguez followed up her initial apology with a longer apology statement released later in the evening, in which she wrote, "In song or in real life, the words that I spoke should not have been spoken."
"I thoughtlessly sang along to the lyrics of a favorite song, and even worse, I posted it," Rodriguez's Instagram statement continued. "The word carries with it a legacy of hurt and pain that I cannot even imagine. Whatever consequences I face for my actions today, none will be more hurtful than the personal remorse I feel."
Rodriguez added, "I have some serious learning and growing to do and I am so deeply sorry for the pain I have caused."
Fans previously pointed out that in Rodriguez's original clip, she skipped a lyric only to jump back in with the N-word. "Voodoo /I can do what you do, easy, believe me," the actress sang in the clip, skipping the word "fronting" before continuing, "N***** give me heebie-jeebies."
It didn't take long for the video to be reposted on Twitter, and for users to call Rodriguez out for using the word. "What kills me is gina skipped a whole word in the song bc that’s how excited she was to say the n word DKAJDKCJSLDKS," one user wrote.
"Gina rodriguez really said the n word with her whole chest like WE black folks ain’t gonna call her out," another tweeted. "Waiting for that fake apology with them fake a** tears luv."
See more reactions below.
As another user pointed out, this isn't the first time Rodriguez has been accused of being anti-black. She received backlash for calling into question why there wasn't more Latinx representation in Marvel movies when Black Panther was announced in 2017. The next year, she received flak for interrupting her Smallfoot co-star, Yara Shahidi, when she was asked a question about being a role model to black women. During a roundtable discussion last year, Rodriguez stated that Latina women were paid less than black women, which is true of the general workforce but not of Hollywood; she emotionally apologized for those comments on Sway in the Morning earlier this year.
"The black community was the only community that I looked towards growing up. We didn't have many Latino shows, and the black community made me feel like I was seen," she said, crying.
"So to get anti-black is saying that I’m anti-family. My father is dark-skinned, he’s Afro-Latino," she continued. "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 that when I speak about Latino advocacy people believe I only mean people of my skin color."
"If I have hurt you, I am sorry and I will always be sorry, but you have to know that, until you know my heart, there’s no way that we can live off clickbait, you guys," Rodriguez said at the time. "You are allowed to feel pain and I empathize with your pain, and I’m sorry if I caused your pain because it is the last thing I want to do … We don’t need to fight each other and if I caused that notion, please forgive me because that is not my intent at all.”
See more on Rodriguez in the video below.
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