Gabrielle Union hints at AGT firing: ‘Don’t be the happy negro’

Gabrielle Union hinted at her America’s Got Talent firing at her New York And Company holiday collection launch in Manhattan.

The 47-year-old lost her job after she reportedly complained of racial bias and a ‘toxic’ work culture at the NBC show.

‘Don’t be the happy negro that does the bidding of the status quo because you’re afraid,’ she said at the launch without naming the TV program, Variety reports.

‘Don’t allow them to call you angry when someone else is called passionate. It’s terrifying. There’s a solid chance you’ll lose your job.…I speak from experience.’ 

She added: ‘Do your best because corporations want global dollars. Do your best to try to hold the door open and hold people responsible.’

The wife of Dwyane Wade allowed: ‘Yeah, I’m asking you to do the impossible…I’m fully aware that job loss is on the table…but if you’re not doing it, nobody is.’

Addressing her own financial situation she said: ‘How many checks do I need? This financial freedom, they’re shackles, masquerading as zeros in my bank account.’

Throwback: The 47-year-old lost her job after she reportedly complained of racial bias and a ‘toxic’ work culture at the NBC show; pictured at the program’s red carpet in September

The Omaha native argued: ‘There are a lot of people who are only interested in filling their own plate. I can’t enjoy my food if everyone else is starving.’

Gabrielle made the remarks on a panel called The Power Of Inclusivity And The Women Leading The Charge, featuring six female speakers.

On Monday she shared a glamorous snap of herself in a car and captioned it: ‘Ohhhh so that’s what we on huh? Yes. Yes it is.’

A day prior she uploaded a selfie video taken during a photo-shoot and captioned: ‘I’m unfazed. I will not be deterred nor silenced.’

Co-panelists: She and Julianne Hough (left) were both fired last month after one season

She and Julianne Hough were both fired last month after one season. A source said, in Variety’s words, that they got ‘excessive notes on their physical appearance.’

One insider said Gabrielle was told her various hairdos were ‘too black,’ a note she nodded to on her Instagram page last week.

She reposted a video originally uploaded by her hairdresser Larry Sims showing off a string of different hairstyles she modeled on the program.

‘Unapologetically me. Be comfortable and confident with your whole a** self. It might give others the fluuuxxx but never stop being you,’ she wrote in the caption. 

‘I’m unfazed’: A day prior she uploaded a selfie video taken during a photo-shoot and wrote in the caption: ‘I will not be deterred nor silenced’

‘You can shine on your own terms. And if you got something to say I dont take notes rooted in anti-blackness. I love me as i am.’

Earlier this month she tweeted that she and NBC network representatives ‘had a lengthy 5-hour, and what I thought to be, productive meeting yesterday.’

She explained: ‘I was able to, again, express my unfiltered truth. I led with transparency and my desire and hope for real change.’

‘I love me as i am’: One Variety insider said Gabrielle was told her various hairdos were ‘too black,’ a note she nodded to on her Instagram page last week

NBC said in a statement: ‘The initial conversation was candid and productive. While there will be a further investigation to get a deeper understanding of the facts, we are working with Gabrielle to come to a positive resolution.’

America’s Got Talent’s creator and co-judge, the famously sharp-tongued Simon Cowell, was a subject of discussion at the meeting, according to Deadline.

‘The ball is in NBC’s court to see if they can get Cowell to agree to make some changes to the way things are done on the show,’ a source told Deadline, which reports an independent investigator will be brought in.