Leah Remini and Jada Pinkett Smith at odds over Scientology
Actress Leah Remini tells Jada Pinkett Smith she wasn’t an authentic friend while trying to get her into Scientology. This comes after the two open up on Smith’s Facebook series ‘Red Table Talk.’
Jada Pinkett Smith is speaking her mind about racial bias, revealing what "triggers" her about white women.
On the latest episode of Smith's online show, "Red Table Talk," the actress candidly discussed relationships between white women and black women and the racial divide between them.
“I think what crushes me, specifically in my relationship with white women, the thing that really breaks my heart is that white women understand what it feels to be oppressed,” Smith said.
The actress went on to explain that white women know “what it feels like to be ostracized or not being treated as an equal.”
Yet, despite acknowledging a kinship regarding the challenges of gender bias, the 47-year-old admitted to having a specific bias toward white women, especially when it comes to a certain hair color.
“I have to admit I’m guilty to that to a certain degree because I do have my own biases, specifically to blonde women," she revealed.“Blonde hair on white women just triggers me. I’ve had to catch myself.”
Smith's mother, Adrienne Banfield-Jones, chimed in, asking her daughter if she had a "specific incident" with a blonde woman that triggered her.
“Absolutely. All throughout my childhood. I do remember experiencing being teased by white women in regards to my hair, how I looked, feeling belittled,” the "Girls Trip" star explained. “I was going to do an interview with this blonde woman and I thought twice about it. I thought, ‘I don’t know if I want to do that.’ That was my first instinct because of how she looked! And I was like, ‘Oh! That’s no different.’ That doesn’t give me the right to clump all blonde women in one.”
Smith continued, "And look at me, I got blonde hair! It’s no different than you getting robbed by a black guy once and now you’re saying all black dudes are thieves and dangerous.”
The "Red Table Talk" host then invited her blonde producer, Annie Price, to join in on the conversation and to share her opinion on the subject.
“Any time I want to have a conversation [about race] I’m afraid I’m going to offend somebody just by starting to talk,” Price admitted. “I feel like I’m going to say the wrong thing."
The producer continued, “I hear a lot of times that white women have privilege and they need to recognize they have privilege. I’m sure I do. I just haven’t had the experience to recognize that I have the privilege. I don’t understand the feeling of racism. I feel a lot of times trying to be friends or trying to reach out to women of color, sometimes I feel like they don’t want to be my friend.”
And while Smith may have admitted to having a bias toward blonde women, the actress recently addressed her tensions with brunette star Leah Remini, a year after the "Scientology and the Aftermath" host accused Smith of being a Scientologist.
In an episode titled "Setting the Record Straight," the actress squashed their Scientology-inspired beef on the "Red Table Talk" show.
"Regardless of what was being presented to you, from me as a friend, you were seeing a side of me that wasn't 100 percent authentic because my job was to always be a perfect person in front of you, or any celebrity, to solely get you into Scientology, fully indoctrinated, fully on board and deserting any other beliefs," Remini told Smith.
Smith, who is the mother to Willow and Jayden, described her online chat with Remini as "emotional" and thanked the actress for opening up about their former feud.
“It was really beautiful and she reached out to me,” she told People in October. “She was much more bigger than me in that way. It was nice to reconnect and release ourselves from all that nonsense that doesn’t matter.”
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