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Sometimes It’s Okay to Burn Your Bridges
Being quiet is overrated. Tiffany Haddish and Dr. Timnit Gebru spoke out, and you should too.
Because we are positioned at the intersection of Black and female, we are often forced to endure two forms of discrimination simultaneously. And those in Hollywood or who occupy well-respected positions at Fortune 500 companies are not exempt.
Fans quickly rallied behind Tiffany Haddish after she called out the Grammys for asking her to host the preshow ceremony but refused to even pick up the tab for her hair and makeup, let alone pay her adequate compensation. The nerve. In a weird twist of fate, around the same time, one of Google’s most prominent computer researchers, artificial intelligence ethicist Timnit Gebru, PhD, accused the company of firing her after she sent an internal email to a diversity-and-inclusion group at Google. The email voiced her frustration over feeling silenced by the company after she released findings from a study she was working on.
Sadly, it seems Gebru’s and Haddish’s experiences only add to a long history in which Black women professionals encounter shady business practices at best and flagrant discriminatory treatment at worst. For decades we have been getting lowballed and paid only a fraction of the salary our White male and female counterparts receive — in Hollywood, tech, and elsewhere. And it’s widely known that Black women are often held to a different standard than their White colleagues and can face vicious consequences when they speak out against their experiences with racism and sexism. Fueled by the hope that Black women will be silenced by fear, we’re expected to grin and bear it, otherwise, face retaliation. But Gebru and Haddish politely said “not today” because sometimes it’s okay to burn your bridges.
During an interview with Variety, Haddish shared that she declined an opportunity to host the pre-telecast ceremony, which airs before the primetime Grammy Awards on January 31, because they wouldn’t pay her for her time or her hair, makeup, and wardrobe costs. These types of audacious and disrespectful practices seem to be par for the course for Black women in Hollywood. Despite her huge success and being nominated this year for the best comedy album for her Netflix special…
