Gabrielle Union Addresses Racism In Entertainment Industry & Beyond: “You Can’t Put A Band-Aid On A Gunshot”

Denise Petski
·2 min read

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Gabrielle Union talked with Trevor Noah about racism in the entertainment industry and beyond, and her recent discrimination complaint she filed against NBCUniversal and America’s Got Talent producers on The Daily Show Tuesday.

Union, who alleges she was fired as a judge from AGT because she had complained of racism and other issues, told Noah that the people at the top have to be held accountable.

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“We have been so committed as an industry — I mean, and every industry is facing the same thing– with going along to get along, trying to figure out how you work around the bad apples as opposed to addressing and making those bad apples accountable and their being real consequences,” said Union.

“I’m about labor, for treating employees fairly, nobody’s asking for anything special..just treat people fairly,” Union said. “Have mechanisms in place so when things happen, there are consequences.”

Union continued, “In front of and behind the camera, there has to be an increase in representation from across the board, from the top to the bottom — who gets to make the decisions of which projects to green light, who is a part of those development processes, who gets to determine budgets.

We have to be able to be okay with change that doesn’t always benefit us,” Union said. “Some people believe that leadership — the only way to lead — is to center yourself in every argument. What I’m learning throughout this whole process is sometimes the best way to lead is to get out of the way and make room for someone else. You have to dismantle the whole thing. You can’t put a Band-Aid on a gunshot.”

You can watch the entire interview above.

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