Zendaya Fired Publicist Over Racial Insensitivity
Zendaya is no stranger to publicly standing up to racial insensitivity and general white ignorance. But now the teen mogul is revealing that she fights the power in her private life as well, and is no stranger to having to regulate on behalf of her race within her own camp.
Zendaya says once upon a time, her publicist told her to sit down and hush when it came to her janky hair and makeup during a photoshoot, saying she should just be happy they even bothered to give a little Black girl a chance…
Needless to say, that pub is no longer around. Via NYDN:
The 19-year-old actress and singer appears on the July cover of Cosmopolitan and shared with the mag her experiences working with racially insensitive people and her return to Disney.
“I didn’t like my hair and makeup one time on a photo shoot, and my publicist told me, ‘You should just be happy with it — they haven’t had a black girl on the cover since forever,’” Coleman said. “She’s no longer my publicist.”
The actress and recent face of CoverGirl — who found fame on the series “Shake it Up” — will return to the Disney Channel in a position of more power: co-producer.
Coleman will both star and produce the upcoming series “K.C. Undercover,” which she says will hopefully help increase diversity for the network.
“The only way I was going to come back to the Disney Channel was if I was in a position of more power,” she said.
“One thing that is really important to me is diversity on the channel. It’s hard as a young person of a different ethnicity or background to look at the TV and not see anyone who looks like you. Representation is important,” she continued.
Good for Zendaya! Shame on her publicist for trying to quiet her down and make her accept the BS. If she’s willing to stand up that way at in her tender teen years, we can only imagine how hard she’ll go when she’s a full-grown adult!
Hit the flip for some snaps of Zendaya vacationing in Brazil on the former Rothschild estate, courtesy of AirBnB
