When Jay Leno made a racist joke, Gabrielle Union discovered there was no corporate protocol in place. The reaction from production was one she would hear repeatedly throughout the season: “We’ll delete it. We’ll edit it out”
“There were so many spaces in this industry where I had to compartmentalize myself to feel like I was worthy of work,” Union tells. “In my 40s, I embraced myself exactly as I am. I wanted to create projects and be a part of things, to have personal and professional relationships that brought me peace, joy, grace and allowed for compassion.”
One insider close to the show says some changes have been implemented, including the installment of sensitivity training and outlets to help screen and elevate issues to human resources more efficiently. Those changes are already in place on the new season of “AGT,” which premiered May 26. “There are so many people who are committed to making NBCUniversal and Comcast different, who truly want to be a part of the solution and on the right side of history,” says Union, who thinks NBC is hardly alone as a media institution in need of an overhaul. “In the same breath, there are some people who want the wheels of change to come to a grinding halt because they feel that their privilege is being challenged.
Union confronted a question she’s faced many times over her career, particularly as a woman of color: “Do I cave? I didn’t feel like myself; I’m shape-shifting to make myself more palatable. I’m contorting myself into something I don’t recognize. I had to look at myself and say, ‘Do you want to keep it easy? Or do you want to be you, and stand up?’ Because I’m not the only one being poisoned at work.
Union’s first instinct was to confront Leno directly, but she demurred, saying she was “going to guess there’s a corporate protocol.” In reality, she found, nothing happened. The reaction from production was one she would hear repeatedly throughout the season: “We’ll delete it. We’ll edit it out.” Union says this enraged her. Leno declined to comment.
Union would not address that specific charge due to the ongoing investigation. In a joint statement, the producers of “AGT” said their ongoing investigation has thus far concluded that “no one associated with the show made any insensitive or derogatory remarks about Ms. Union’s appearance, and that neither race nor gender was a contributing factor in the advancement or elimination of contestants at any time.
“At the very beginning of his act, he put on black gloves to [represent] a black performer,” Union says. She was concerned, to say the least, that any expression of blackface — historically offensive caricatures of black and brown people performed by whites and often using dark paint — was not immediately shut down.
Once again, she found herself “waiting for there to be some mechanism that kicks in, to protect an audience of 4,000 people in a Pasadena auditorium that just watched that — all of the production, all of the other contestants, the judges. There was nothing in place. They did not think enough about how we would experience this blatantly racist act that, as a company, they have established that they take seriously,” she says.
“I never thought of him as a shrinking violet. I thought he dished out very direct criticism and commentary over the years. So I felt very comfortable giving direct feedback about the things that I thought needed changing and addressing. I assumed that as a businessperson, and seeing that I was by far the No. 1 judge, he would take it in stride and make the necessary adjustments. And we would come back to work, ready to go,” she says.
Throughout the turbulent experience, Union was reminded of the words of a former teacher at UCLA, where she studied sociology. Activist and #MeToo founder Tarana Burke warns of the consequences of taking on the role of “truth-teller” publicly and within slow-changing institutions. Left: Howie Mandel, Union, Julianne Hough and Simon Cowell served as judges for Season 14 of “America’s Got Talent”;“When it’s easier to come up with excuses of why someone is murdered in cold blood, and protect the perpetrators, I don’t know how we get to you seeing me as an equal in the office. I can’t separate the two, because I don’t have the luxury as a black woman in America. I take all of this experience with me everywhere,” she says.
Union’s creative reputation speaks for itself, says her former director and co-star Chris Rock, who cast her in his 2014 comedy “Top Five.” Rock says Union is “one of the smartest, most brutally honest people I know. She also happens to be a great actress who not only brings her talent but also lends credibility and authenticity to anything she’s in. Anyone would be lucky to work with Gabrielle.”
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