Zoe Saldana recently told AFP, she believes Hollywood bullied Donald Trump. Once news of her comments got out, Twitter came for the Guardians of the Galaxy actress.
In the interview Saldana said:
We got cocky and became arrogant and we also became bullies. We were trying to single out a man for all these things he was doing wrong… and that created empathy in a big group of people in America that felt bad for him and that are believing in his promises.
Let’s start with the idea that Saldana believes Hollywood became bullies. President-elect Trump is the biggest bully out there. He spent the entire campaign and post campaign using a variety of bullying tactics at rallies, press conferences and other public appearances. Including mocking a reporter with a disability. If Saldana believes that Hollywood became “bullies”, they were simply fighting fire with fire. No sympathy on that one.
The final part of that quote where she discusses empathy makes some sense. Like it or not, there is a segment of this country that believes the Trump rhetoric. That think he was the victim of unfair attacks by the media and Democrats during the campaign and those people, as unbelievable as it seems, were empathetic and sided with Trump. As poorly informed and misguided as they were/are, this particular segment chose to see Trump and themselves aligned as underdogs against the establishment. So Saldana isn’t wrong there.
Twitter of course didn’t use nuance with Saldana’s comments and attacked the actress. See some of the reactions below.
Zoe Saldana, so ur defending Donald Trump now, ur the exact opposite of what Nina Simone represented & this is why no 1 wanted u 2 play her pic.twitter.com/PcWJ3UOiXw
— ?♐Skin of Becky♐? (@IKilledBecky) January 14, 2017
Lmaoo Zoe Saldana said trump is being bullied by Hollywood.. pic.twitter.com/LVpKqeDTsY
— Sadè ? (@Ebonyheaux) January 14, 2017
I will never see Zoe Saldana as Black. She didn’t even want to claim her Blackness until she got heat for Nina Simone.
— Jehovah Thickness (@GlamazonJay) January 14, 2017
There were other tweets like the last one and several comments centered on Saldana’s ethnicity. Saldana was born to an Afro-Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother. In addition she has Lebanese and Haitian roots. She is also married to a white man. For some Saldana is not black enough, or black at all. All these factors are at play when people critique her for saying anything that isn’t 100% pro black.
I don’t know Zoe Saldana, what kind of person she is, or what she truly feels about her black roots. I do wonder, is it helpful to question/attack her racial loyalty in this instance? She is not a Trump supporter, but did respond to a question about Trump in a way that was not pleasing to many that oppose Trump. Plus coming off the heels of Meryl Streep and other Hollywood celebs’ takedown of the President-elect, this answer doesn’t do much in the way of garnering support for Saldana.
I am on the record as being 100% anti-Trump, and a Clinton voter, so before you get in my mentions, relax. Again, I am simply posing a question. What is the benefit of questioning Saldana’s racial loyalty as it pertains to her Trump comments? Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for that.