Terry Crews Apologizes To Gabrielle Union After Interview With Jemele Hill

Source: NBC / Getty

Terry Crews is STILL trying to make amends with Gabrielle Union after he was less than supportive when she spoke out about racism and a toxic work environment she endured at “America’s Got Talent” last year. When headlines about Union’s experiences went public, Terry Crews, who hosts the show, was less than supportive. This weekend however Crews tweeted a third apology to Union:

“This will be my 3rd public apology to Gabrielle Union,” Crews wrote.”If a 4th is needed, I will continue to apologize and push for reconciliation between the world, and more importantly, the culture I grew up in. I’m sorry, @itsgabrielleu #reconciliation.”

Crews’ latest apology arrived on the heels of Gabrielle Union’s recent appearance on her friend Jemele Hill’s “Jemele Hill Is Unbothered” Spotify podcast, where Hill chatted with Union about a variety of topics — the lightest of which were both their weddings and getting drunk with the Gronkowski brothers, as well as more serious topics, like the racist vandalism of LeBron James’ house and how Dwyane Wade’s sons and nephews can’t even walk their dog beyond Chris Bosh’s home 11 doors down because the mostly white community they live in still subjects black children (even privileged ones) to the risk of racial profiling in the same ways that cost Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice their lives. Both Union and Hill held nothing back when they addressed Crews’ current status within the black community as well as where he went wrong with his comments, stance and less than supportive position on Gabrielle Union’s experience at ‘AGT.’

We’ve excerpted most of the parts that probably triggered Terry’s apology below:

“Let’s talk about Terry Crews for a minute,” Jemele Hill said, near the 27 minute mark, leading into her and Gabrielle’s conversation about the fallout from her experience at ‘AGT.’ ‘Talking about people who think they are exceptional negroes. What the fu** is up with this dude? I don’t know man.”

“People hit me all day long and are like, what’s happening?” Gabrielle Union responded. “The only thing I know for sure is that Terry Crews gets three checks from NBC, so I don’t know if being worried about job stability – which listen, we all know that if you speak up about racism and white supremacy you absolutely can be shown the door. We both are very clear on that. So I don’t know if that is the motivation. I will say watching Don Lemon drag his former self and so succinctly interrogate Terry Crews, where in one of our group chats we were like we wonder how long before Terry mentions Chicago and black on black crime — and it was like 15 minutes later, we were like damn.”

“He hit the whole bingo board,” Jemele agreed.

“Right on cue,” Gabrielle Union responded. “People were like, you weren’t the only black person on “America’s Got Talent”. I was like no I was on there — with Terry Crews. So based on his recent actions, do you really think Terry Crews was an ally, was helpful, was a sounding board? I think Terry Crews is showing us who he is and what he does during times of adversity and it’s not solidarity.” Even though years ago when Terry came forward with news of his assault I was one of the first to say, ‘I know Terry Crews and I believe him,’ just to offer solidarity. “Not to say if I offer you solidarity I expect you to be the getaway driver during a bank robbery — that’s what he made it sound like in one of those series of tweets. If you saw something, say something. But if you didn’t have my experience the way that I experienced it. you also have an option to say, ‘I believe Gab, I just had a different experience.’ End of story. You don’t have to do a press tour where your sole objective is to discredit and malign me. You know, I’ve been in Hollywood a very long time. There’s very little that surprises me, but that was very disappointing for sure.”

Jemele agreed, chiming in that Crews went out of his way to invalidate Gabrielle Unions claims by doing an interview on the “Today” show where he said ‘AGT’ was the most diverse set he’d ever worked on. You can watch the clip below:

Union eventually filed a lawsuit against NBC for racial discrimination she alleges she experienced on “America’s Got Talent” and now says she believes Terry will be the one to actually benefit from her fight down the line.

“At the end of the day, the work that I am doing to make sure that NBC is a more fair and equitable place of employment will benefit him as well. So it’s OK to eat your cereal and let me do my thing and get out of the way. If you’re not going to help, then get out of the way. If you don’t feel financially comfortable, or spiritually comfortable or you flat out disagree, but at the end of the day, he will benefit from a safer, more equitable workplace from what I stuck my neck out to do and got fired for, you know? Instead of actively working against progress. Since I’ve been so vocal about what happened, the floodgates have opened. This reckoning is just hitting. We’re in the parking lot at the beach, we’re not even in the sand, in the water. There is so much more that is coming. Choosing this hill to die on, I have a feeling [Terry Crews] will probably regret it for a thousand reasons, very soon.”

Well. Well. Terry definitely felt the wrath this time. Do you think his apology was strong enough?

Union went on to describe how her fear that the great opportunity she’d been given at “America’s Got Talent” would be tainted at some point were realized even more quickly than she’d thought when within her first hour on set she encountered Simon Cowell walking into the building with a lit cigarette. Union describes how she suffers from an extremely bad negative reaction to cigarette smoke, which causes her severe cold symptoms which could interfere of her job performance. However, reporting the issue with the cigarette smoke came with it’s own set of complications since Cowell is the owner, Executive Producer and lead judge of ‘AGT.’ She also described how one of the first acts she took issue with included a performer using black gloves to portray an African-American singer, describing the discomfort of having to explain why black face is wrong while sitting next to Julianne Hough — who once wore black face as part of a Halloween costume.

It’s a really revealing episode which you can listen to HERE.

In case you need reminders, here are Terry Crews’ previous apologies, which he issued in January and June of this year also via Twitter.

@itsgabrielleu, I want you to know it was never my intention to invalidate your experience— but that is what I did. I apologize. You have been through a lot in this business, and with that I empathize with the struggle toward fairness and equality in the workplace.

@itsgabrielleu You are a role model to the entire black community and In my desire to be professionally neutral as your co-worker, I should have at the very least understood you just needed my support. Sincerely, Terry Crews

The murder of George Floyd has forced me to search my heart to find out what more I can do, as a human being, as a citizen, and more specifically as a Black man, to ensure our community can not only survive but thrive in this new world.

Whites have always had privilege in a society that has systemic racism built in, a fact that has been proven over and over again with the senseless deaths of unarmed Black men and women— with no one being held accountable.

But I also see that I am privileged as man, in a society that also has sexism built in. This privilege carries over into my community as a Black man in relationship with Black women.

It is in this light I want to make further amends with Black women, and in particular @itsgabrielleu

for not recognizing the privilege I have – especially in the workplace- and adding this fact to my earlier apology.

Clearly these Twitter apologies are not making much difference to their intended audience. Do you think maybe Terry should try something BESIDES Tweeting? He’s almost as bad at it as you know who.