Zoe Saldana Under Fire For Problematic Remarks On Dominican Independence Day

BY: Walker

Published 4 years ago

Actress Zoe Saldana is under fire once again. Following her responses to an Instagram post explaining the complicated history of Dominican Independence Day, Saldana’s problematic comments have allegedly even incited death threats and hateful messages being sent to the team of the thought-provoking post.

via: AceShowbiz

Zoe Saldana caught heat for her responses to an Instagram post explaining the complicated history of Dominican Independence Day. The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star received death threats and hateful messages after she commented on a post on Refinery29’s Somos Instagram account on February 27.

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The 10-slide long post, which was a collaboration with InCultured Co., asked readers, “What to the Afro-Dominican is the 27th of February.” It detailed how the split between Haiti and the Dominican Republic has influenced the anti-blackness often both internalized and/or experienced by many Afro-Dominicans to this day.

While the comments on the post has been disabled, a screenshot saw Zoe writing, “Maybe just say ‘What to the Dominican is the Independence Day.’ ” She then took to her Instagram Story to blast the Somos team over the post.

“You owe all Dominicans – regardless if they’re Black, white, or Taino – an apology. On our independence day, we do not need to be schooled by others on what we ‘should’ know about ourselves #CancelCultureIsStartingToSuckSometimes,” the actress wrote.

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Not stopping there, Zoe further pressured the team to issue an apology by writing, “Waiting for your apology about this post. Shame on you and shame on all platforms who reposted you – you all know who you are! But that’s okay, the sun will always continue to shine on La Bella Quisqueya.”

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Internet users were baffled over her reaction as they wondered what made her so mad about the post. “Zoe Saldana really thinks she’s white, I’m convinced. Bye girl. Tf are you mad for??” asked one person. Another user tweeted, “Zoe Saldaña is the Dominican Stacey Dash.”

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In response to Zoe’s posts, InCultured Co. founder France Francois shared to Refinery29, “When Dominicans like Zoe Saldana try to deny the history of Black struggle in the Dominican Republic, what they do is try to uphold white supremacy and silence the struggle of Blackness that has been continuous within Latinidad.”
“Saldana called on us to apologize, but we will not apologize for working to dismantle the anti-Blackness that exists within Latinidad,” Francois added. “Part of that is making it clear that we’re also not here to cancel Saldana either in part because she’s shown a capacity to learn and grow.”

“I have so much love and pride for my culture and my family’s country, and part of that is having enough love to want things to change for the better. Somos holds all of Latinidad to the same standard. Our work facilitates dialogue that sparks action and conversation, challenges the status quo, and fosters our readers’ abilities to learn about and inhabit different perspectives within and without Latinidad,” the founder continued.

Francois concluded, “I hope that those like Saldaña take a beat here to understand how hollow it is to celebrate something if you all refuse to see it for all it is. ‘The sun will always continue to shine on la bella quisqueya,’ she wrote on Instagram Stories. But practicing real love means looking in the shadows, too.”

When it comes to the erasure of Black women’s stories — Afro-Latina and African American in particular — Saldana’s opinions always seem to miss the mark.

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