Keke Palmer has backed Taraji P. Henson in her emotional commentary about how she and other Black women in Hollywood are underpaid.
Henson got teary-eyed during a SiriusXM interview earlier this week during which she spoke about how much she’s had to work to stay afloat and manage her finances while being paid a fraction of what some of her peers make.
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“I’m just tired of working so hard being gracious at what I do and getting paid a fraction of the cost. I’m tired of hearing my sisters say the same thing over and over,” she began. “I hear people go, ‘You work alot.’ I have to. The math ain’t mathing. When you start working you have a team and big bills come with what you do.
“When you hear someone saying ‘Such and such made $10 million.’ That didn’t make it to their account. Know that off the top Uncle Sam is getting 50 percent. Do the math now we have $5 million. Your team is getting 30 percent off of what you gross not what Uncle Sam took. Now, do the math. It seems whenever I break a glass ceiling and it’s time to renegotiate I’m at the bottom again.”
Taraji P. Henson also recently revealed that she fired her entire team after they failed to monetarily capitalize on the success of her Cookie character in Empire.
Keke Palmer took to Instagram to repost Henson’s comments on Wednesday (December 20) with a detailed explanation of Hollywood’s exploitive nature toward its constituents.
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“The entertainment industry is just like any other industry,” the Nope star said. “We run businesses to keep our brands afloat, us being the brand/business. And it’s that team of company members that decrease any assumed large lump sum. This includes monthly expenses just like everyone else. In the words of biggie more money more problems.
“To make money you must spend money so what seems like a lot is taken by a lot,” Palmer continued. “There is still privilege in this depending what vantage point you are seeing from, but in our industry amongst one another this is neutralized.
Palmer, who has been acting since the age of 11, went on to add that holding one job is no longer a reality for those who hope to thrive in American society these days.
“For an entertainment career you may be like me, an actor, influencer, host, singer, speaker etc. I keep a job because I HAVE to haha. We ALL work multiple jobs and we may like some but also because we HAVE to,” Palmer wrote.
She added: “To be successful and live in America it’s literally this way because of the cash to expense ratio and this is why entrepreneurship is so important but that in itself is expensive! Having one job for anyone is not really an option no matter what industry unless you are like the top top top TOP earner and I mean that’s like Bill Gates and them I suppose. Idk because I can’t relate haha!
“I am not complaining or comparing but I acknowledge that we all have similar struggles in our industries and it’s because corporations run everything and they aren’t people. ‘America we have a problem’ -@beyonce.”
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Plenty of stars showed the actor, love and support outside of Keke like Gabrielle Union, Halle Berry and Steve Harvey.
“The truth about Hollywood,” Harvey candidly penned while Berry wrote. “This is straight facts sister T! Thank you for spitting the facts upon facts !”
