Nicole Beharie had a moment, circa 2012-2014, where I really thought she was going to be the next big thing, that she was on her way to super-stardom. The first time I saw her was in Shame, starring Michael Fassbender. She and Fassbender had a thing during filming and maybe a while after, but then he started up with Zoe Kravitz. Still, she got some attention from blogs and from movie critics for Shame and for the Fassbender relationship. She followed that up with guest appearances on some big shows (The Good Wife, L&O: SVU), then she got Sleepy Hollow, which started in 2013 and became a pretty decent hit for Fox. She was the co-lead alongside Tom Mison as Ichabod Crane.
Sleepy Hollow should have been her ticket to the big leagues: the lead on a popular network sci-fi/drama, right? Sleepy Hollow ended up fizzling out soon after Nicole “left” the show rather suddenly after the third season. I actually remember when that happened, and how she didn’t get super-specific, but she definitely let people know that she was experiencing a hostile work environment. Now, several years later, Nicole is promoting Miss Juneteenth. She spoke with the NY Times about the new movie and exactly what happened behind-the-scenes on Sleepy Hollow.
On black beauty: “On one hand, there’s a lot of pressure to aspire toward an unattainable version of black beauty. On the other, people are embracing their own hair, body and sexuality. It’s about loving yourself, which is an act of revolution as we now undo hundreds of years of being told that it’s not sufficient. I’ve been natural since college, but not on the red carpet until I started seeing people like Lupita Nyong’o. I was like, “What?!” Because it is a social contract to keep our hair under wraps. But traditions remind us to keep moving toward freedom.
Why her career nose-dived after she left Sleepy Hollow: “When you’re a person of color or a woman of any race, you can be labeled in a way that can change the trajectory of your life, health and career… For me, six years ago I was on a TV show. My co-star and I both got sick at the same time with the same illness and had different treatments. He was allowed to go on leave for a month and I had to continue working. There was a smokescreen of me getting my own episode titled “Mama.” By the end of that episode, I started to fall apart. They shut down production for two weeks because I got sick. They sent in lots of doctors, and I had daily checkups to make sure I was actually sick because they had to get the production going. Every doctor said I wasn’t doing well and that I needed to rest. That is not what they wanted to hear. Months ensued and I got a lawyer. I got my hours down and worked through it. But then I developed an autoimmune condition. I had C. difficile [a bacterium that causes a range of symptoms], which had me on eight different prescription medications.
What happened post-Sleepy Hollow: “It took five years to undo those three years. I’ve been putting pieces of myself back together and healing from all the antibiotics and the antiviral steroids as well as the things that happened in that environment. I never wanted to talk about this until the resentment and bitterness was out of my system. A lot of corporations are saying lovely things right now, but it doesn’t always go well when black people speak up and ask questions. We can face weaponized denial and obliviousness.
They called her difficult: “Sometimes I think that some people I was working with didn’t like that I was unwell but loved by the audience. I would think they’d support that. But everyone of color on that show was seen as expendable and eventually let go. I tried to get work afterwards and people were like, “We heard you were difficult.” But no one can say I was late or unprofessional or negative.
“Sometimes I think that some people I was working with didn’t like that I was unwell but loved by the audience.” That was so true – she was getting so much heat and attention for the show (she and Tom Mison both, to be fair) and there were people obsessed with the show and with her, and I’m sure there were a lot of people at Fox and on the show who didn’t like that. It reminds me a little bit of the Archie Panjabi situation on The Good Wife – a super-popular character played by a well-liked actress, and for “reasons,” the white people in charge marginalized the actress and the character. Anyway, it sounds like the people involved with Sleepy Hollow were absolute trash and I can totally believe – this was pre-Time’s Up – that those white men in charge labeled her “difficult” and told all of their white bro friends not to work with her.
Here’s the trailer for Miss Juneteenth:
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I thought it was so weird at the time that she left, plot wise it made ZERO sense. This makes so much more sense.
Agreed! And I loved her on that show, she was the best part. It was so strange. Damnit
loved the show!!!!! I didn’t even bother with after she left
@Jus Tiffany – I tried but it was painful. She was critical to the success of that show
I wonder where her co-stars were in all this? If she and Mison were sick (with the same thing?) at the same time and he got time off but knows she was forced to work while sick, did he speak up for her?
I stopped watching too. But from what I recall, Janina Gavankar was said to have done a good job on the show, as did the kid who played her daughter (sorry, I don’t recall that actresses’ name). But I think the show had been ruined by then (actually, ruined since season 2).
So her and her costar had the same illness? That seems really odd to me and scary. I never watched this show but I remember it being popular and seeing her in the promos and thinking how beautiful she was.
If they both got C dif it makes perfect sense because the bacteria is extremely contagious. You can’t kill it by washing your hands it’s just that the mechanical action of scrubbing your hands removes the spores that spread it. Long term antibiotic use kills off “good” bacteria making it even easier for the bacteria to get a foothold and spread.
I don’t want to get to deep into speculation as it’s her personal health, but my guess is it was something like mononucleosis. Highly contagious and not uncommon. No surprise they would both end up with it, working in close quarters. If she had an undiagnosed auto-immune condition mono could definitely cause some serious complications and the show runners were likely being d**ks about the fact that he recovered in a certain time and she didn’t. It sounds like the C dif came later?
WHICH IS WHY YOUR PRODUCTION HAS INSURANCE SHOW RUNNERS! Ugh, it’s infuriating what happened to her.
It’s not the fact that Mison recovered and Beharie did not; they allowed Mison to take a full month break to go home and recover, while keeping Beharie on set to work until she went became too sick to do it and was sent to an ER.
Then they still buggered her to return to work. I think she became sicker from taking too much medication to keep up.
And then, a full year after she left, they were still blaming her for the show’s cancellation. It’s a whole lot of fuckery.
@anon As someone who was a fan of the show Sleepy Hollow, I can for sure say – a majority of people, like myself, stopped watching the minute Beharie’s character was killed off. Hell some did even a little before that when it was clear how marginalized her character was being made.
She and Tom Mison – their characters – made that show together for many of us. Like Mulder and Scully made The X-Files. You get rid of one or the other and it was never going to work. (Just like X-Files got canceled by the end of the 9th season after David Duchovny’s Mulder left the show).
If they had done right by Beharie (which from reading the article, would have simply been letting her take a month off like they did Mison) the show would have lasted longer. They’d rather blame her and her fans than take responsibility for their own racist, sexist, shitty behavior.
@morrigan01 In my part of the world, we were watching the show several weeks behind the US, so when I read about her character’s demise, I left too. I still don’t know how she died nor what happened during the last episodes of S3. S4 wasn’t even broadcasted here, so I assume it was that bad!
But the effort a whole production team took to take venguence on the black lead, to the point of destroying their own golden goose of a show: freaking unbelievable! White supremacy is one hell of a drug…
I loved this show, and yeah, they didn’t like it. The producers, the writers, the network, whoever, I really don’t know. But the chemistry between Nicole and Mison was off the charts, and the fans wanted that. Instead, they bring in a white woman, who plays his long dead ex wife, and the entire show is about that couple now. But no one gave one crap about her or them as a couple! It killed the entire show and I stopped watching. I was going to go back once they got back to Abby and Ichabod, but then I read that they killed Abby off. I couldn’t believe it. I never watched again, and it got cancelled.
I hope she gets the career she deserves going forward.
I remember that too, they shoehorned his wife into the story, and that’s when the fans started to turn away. I had fallen a few episodes behind in watching, then learned Abby had been killed off, and never went back to it.
Nicole was always excellent in the show, and she and Tom were great together. I always got the impression they were close friends off screen, but he doesn’t sound super supportive here?
Her film looks good, and I hope Nicole now gets to have the opportunities she deserves.
FOX was up to something too because the original showrunners left after the first (and best) season. The second season showrunner was a big fan of the actress who played the wife ( still don’t get that aside from looks) and Abbie was slowly sidelined. They didn’t even invite her to do the dvd commentary!! I also remember reading this sad story that she was told that Tom was THE star of this show, they thought he was so great. They beat her down so much that she cried when a roomful of fans greeted her with love at a convention, because she’d been told not to expect much. Black Twitter really lifted this show up every week, watching it all together. When I read about her leaving (being pushed out) I didn’t even bother anymore.
Shazza, I didn’t know all of this. How awful to read. She was the best part of the show for me, she and her sister. I thought Mison was great too, but without Abby, nah. And whoever played his wife I can’t even picture her, she was a non-entity to me. They destroyed the show
I really enjoyed this show the first season, it was a really unique plot and the chemistry was off the charts. Scary and sexy. It did seem to go down hill in the second season and I’m sorry to hear about Nicole’s struggles.
Does anyone know why the original showrunners left? Were they forced out by typical power-plays/drama behind the scenes?
The idea that Crane was the star is kind of impossible. People connect to shows because they connect to the characters. People may like him, but he’s not exactly relatable. At best they were equals, but he’s really more of a quirky side kick than anything else. It’s Abbie that people related to and connected with. It’s her journey that was the most interesting.
@Ainsley7 Abby and Ichabod were the Scully and Mulder dynamic. Abby was the skeptic and Ichabod was the believer. You can’t just have a show focused on the believer. A show focused only on Fox Mulder would just be insufferable because it’s though Scully and his dynamic with her that he becomes relatable, real, *human.* Same went for Ichabod Crane.
I told this to one of the writers of the show on twitter BTW. That when they killed Abby they killed their Scully, and when they did it they did it because they never understood that she was the Scully of the show, which Season 1 clearly established. So by killing her they killed the main heart/dynamic of the show and they brought on the final cancelation themselves.
I’m so mad about this. I loved this show. Abby made that show. She was the anchor. ARGH. When they brought the wife in, it went off the rails.
I remember there were tweets/polls from someone officially associated with the show, something about “who do you think should be the female lead of Sleepy Hollow?” and all the fans were like “WTF are you talking about? There already is a female lead: Nicole Beharie? Why are you surfing around for a new lead when you already have one who is fantastic?” That combined with the DVD commentary nonsense and other shenanigans both in the show’s storylines, and showrunner, writer interviews made it ABUNDANTLY clear they were disrespecting Baharie. It was shameless and shameful.
And from a business perceptive, it seemed to make zero sense, because the show was a big hit for FOX when it came out, and with every change, every nudge of Beharie’s character to the sidelines (often in favor of a character who wasn’t that interesting, was written badly/inconsistently and, well the actress wasn’t that good compared to Mison and Beharie) the show was thrown more out of balance and the ratings went down. FOX had lightning in a bottle when that show launched and they tanked it.
The only explanation that made sense to me at the time were that the show runners (2nd wave)/writers/network handlers were blatantly racist trolls that couldn’t stand to have a POC be a lead on their show. Because otherwise, why would TV execs, normally in the business of gaining viewers and making money, completely revamp a show that was successful and building an audience? Orlando Jones also was shown the door in a way that made zero sense from a character, story or ratings perspective.
Exactly. They kept making it about his lame a$$ dead wife that no one cared about.
and Nikki Reed thought she would swoop and be the STAR! of the show. She got written out pretty quickly for her diva nonsense on set. She was an ass and they kept her on over Nicole. Hollywood just sucks.
Ugh, that storyline was terrible. Nikki Reed was not believable at all. She was a walking anachronism.
What’s crazy is that I remember even casual fans talking about how blatantly they were avoiding the obvious plot development (her character hooking up with Ichabod). With a show whose viewership had to be predominantly white by sheer numbers alone, if the racism was that evident to people in the privileged class who weren’t privy to what was going on behind the scenes, I hate to imagine what she was dealing with in that environment.
I didn’t mind they never hooked up, they were best friends and colleagues. Not everything has to devolve into rutting. The same way Don and Peggy from Mad Men never had sex. They were soul mates of a different sort. I actually thought it was smarter to keep their dialogue snappy and fun.
Adults falling in love and having adult relationships isn’t “rutting.” Don’t be reductive. This is pretty standard stuff that can occur even among friends and colleagues, particularly if it reads natural to the chemistry of the characters. Moreover, I’d really avoid using terminology that comes charged with a lot of animalistic connotations when you’re discussing a show utilizing a black female character in a romantic relationship with a white man. You may be frustrated with the lack of platonic relationships in media elsewhere, but it NOT subversive here. Portraying a black woman as the romantic and intellectual equal of a white man, framing the narrative in a way that makes it clear that she is beautiful to him and worth pursuing romantically, is far more radical than the opposite. Both black and white women face sexism in media portrayals, but the way in which that sexism unfolds in their presentation is dramatically different. *Not* setting up the idea of Berharie’s character as a potential candidate for romance while drawing the male character’s dead white wife into the story carries a lot of problematic connotations to it, especially if she’s being used to push the black character out.
I liked the friendship between Abby and Crane. I still remember that little scene where he was outraged by the tax on donuts! They were great together. The show lost its heart when they dropped her from the show because it required both characters to make it work for the viewers.
@Veronica clearly the characters did love each other, respect each other. If you need to solidify it with sex. That’s your need. I just don’t see why the need for every male/female to have to do down the same route every time. I think it would have been worse for the characters to do that to just have the writers kill her off. Black woman dies the moment she finds love with the white man? That seems a lot more reductive as you say.
And yes I was being snarky and being in the abstract. I appreciate your POV apologies if I offended.
@AppleTartin what you don’t seem to understand is that Black Women are, by in large, desexulized in TV and Film. They are almost never portrayed as desired over in a romantic way. If they are sexulized, it’s usually in the stereotypical “Jezabelle” way, as someone who is sexually desired but that is all, Never as someone who is desired romantically fully as a person and a woman.
You know one of the reasons the show Scandal was such a big hit with black women? Because Olivia Pope – aside from being badass – had practically every high-powered man – black and white – falling over themselves to get her with them. *Romantically* not just sexually. Hell, one man, a white guy (a secret service agent who knew about her affair with the president) talked at one point about how he’d never really gotten to look at her fully until that moment (when she was questioning him) and not only kept calling her beautiful, but compared her to freaking Helen of Troy. That has never been done wrt a black woman in fiction. Ever.
So yeah, sorry. A relationship between Abby and Ichabod wouldn’t have just been a standard romance thing. Specifically because of Abby’s race and how media (tv and film) normally portrays black women when it comes to romantic storylines.
Yes. I remember reading about it at the time on fan boards and Twitter. The new showrunner was pushing Katrina to the front and sidelining Abby. All the minority characters were being sidelined.
Yep, they shoved a no-talent white actress into our faces, and created a “love triangle” by adding a no-talent white actor as the “face” behind the headless horseman. It became a horrible soap opera. Beharie and Lyndie Greenwood (who was great as the sister) were sidelined for the white family soap opera. The showrunners were so wrapped up in creating the “white family” dynamic, that they ruined the show.
Ugggghhh and Baharie and Lyndie Greenwood were BOTH SO GOOD!
Yeah, I used to watch the show, and Season 2 was when it was becoming clear how sidelined Abby was being for Katrina (the wife who had been in limbo as a secondary character during Season 1). I quit halfway through season 2, kinda hoping that they were just doing the standard “delaying the main couple getting together by throwing in romantic complication” nonsense, but even then, what they were doing felt more like sidelining the black character(s) for the white characters thing. (As seen with the other black characters on the show like Captain Irving and his family).
I didn’t come back for season 3 since talk on tumblr showed that it was even worse for the character of Abby than in season 2, and then I heard that her character had been killed off in the final episodes of Season 3. After that happened, I posted on tumblr that the show would probably get renewed for a 4th seasons, but that that season would tank and likely be the final one, and I was right. The showrunners seem to absolutely resent everything that drew people into the show during Season 1, especially the Abby-Ichabod dynamic/relationship and the popularity of Abby’s character and worked and did everything they could to destroy it. And, in doing so, they destroyed the show and their jobs.
I watched that show because she was so good in it. It tanked after she left, and I kept expecting to hear about a movie or something that had drawn her away. How awful.
Being labeled difficult is the career-limiting curse for Black women in every profession. I hadn’t heard about the illness issue with Sleepy Hollow. But it was clear that the showrunners didn’t want to work with her and did everything possible to minimize her character. I was glad it got canceled after she was forced out. They could have had a great long-running show a la The X-Files but they let their misogyny and likely racism get in the way.
Yup, I IMMEDIATELY thought of Monique but I also remember reading how TPTB treated Nichole.
I loved that show and was pissed at how theY *spoiler* killed off her character. I stopped watching after that. I wondered what happened to her after that show. I hope she gets the attention she deserves. I saw fellow actors and comedians on IG promoting this film so I hope it opens more doors for her.
EVERYONE (with Netflix) Go watch Black Mirror season 5 episode 1 “Striking Vipers”!! It stars Nichole, Anthony Mackie and Yayha Abdul-Mateen. Nichole is EXCELLENT.
I couldn’t get past that first episode with the Prime Minister. . . . Did it get less disgusting?
@xo lol Black Mirror truly is an amazing anthology series. Some of the best sci-fi writing commenting on technology and how it can drive society in interesting ways. The pilot episode is not indicative of the series at all.
White Christmas, San Junipero (won an Emmy and my favorite episode), USS Callister (won an Emmy), and Be Right Back are exceptional.
Bandersnatch, a choose your own adventure story, is an interesting concept I wasn’t into it but like that type of experimentation is what’s so cool about it.
Pls give it a try again.
That’s a trippy episode and game boy level extra. I loved it!
Holy shit. If you guys don’t know, C. diff (Clostridium difficile) is caused by an overgrowth of a naturally occurring flora in your digestive tract, often caused by antibiotics killing off other bacteria that keep it under control or through contamination from others. It is *extremely* dangerous and highly infectious. It’s the scourge of hospitals everywhere and very hard to beat once you have it because the antibiotics it requires can be VERY hard on the body (i.e. vancomycin – which requires routine blood draws to make sure it isn’t wrecking your kidneys). The symptoms are primarily constant diarrhea and gastritis, which can be downright deadly in patients with immune conditions because of the dehydration and intestinal damage it can cause. It’s not uncommon for patients to have recurring bouts of it over a period of *years.*
What I’m saying is utterly irresponsible to make *anybody* work in that environment, not just for her, but for any crew member she could have possibly infected. That’s medical negligence on an outrageous level, and that’s likely as much a compounding of sexism (not taking her seriously on medical issues) on top of the racism (valuing her health and safety less than her white, male coworker’s), but it’s disgusting no matter how you slice it. I’m glad she’s out of that environment but beyond disgusted that she’s the one who’s had to pay the ultimate price for it career and healthwise.
Yikes! They should have shut down production for awhile and relocated.
We knew. We been knew. I watched that show. I loved it. And I loved Nicole. She was the standout star and I can see how Fox would take issue with their handsome WHITE male lead being seen as secondary. Because he was. Tom Mison was nothing without Nicole by his side. When she left and they tried to make him the star I stopped watching. And so did everyone else. And that’s why the show only last one season after her departure.
I had always wondered how she was because I knew that something bad had to have gone down for her to have left so suddenly. She was labeled difficult and probably angry as well. Weaponized racist tropes.
I watched the show for the beginning when it aired too I loved sleepy hollow when it was announced that Nicole was leaving . I remember well the rumors that the show runners started about Nicole and the fans didn’t believe the rumors she had a a lot of fans backing her and supporting her at the time unfortunately she wasn’t the only actor for the show who the show did wrong . Orlando the captain also complaining about the show runners and the way they did his character in the end . The show definitely push the main character Wife a lot and it definitely ruined the show once Nicole was gone I stopped watching too . It’s such a shame that fox allowed the show runners to bullied a woman of color without any sort of conquest .
Orlando was SO GOOD. I think I had only seen him in comedic roles prior to Sleepy Hollow.
Tom Mison is SO BORING. They had a great dynamic, but his character was nothing without Nicole. Such a bummer. She was a joy in that role.
I thought Tom Mison was good, and Mison and Beharie together were fantastic.
The nonsense with the gauzy dead, oh wait she isn’t, good, oh no wait she’s evil poorly written poorly acted wife, and Nikki Reed (oh gosh I had completely forgotten her horrible character/performance until I read this article) … no one could act opposite that and make it halfway interesting.
John Noble gave an interview around that time basically saying that the writers/showrunners had no idea what they were trying to do with characters, storylines etc. When the veteran professional, talented actor who helped FRINGE hold together with it’s crazy storylines basically throws up his hands and says “I give up”, you know it’s a shitshow.
But TPTB really tanked the show when they knocked Beharie’s character to the sidelines.
There was a lot of shadiness going on behind the scenes of Sleepy Hollow. The decision after the 1st season to switch to Katrina & Ichabod was greatly influenced by the bts relationship between the Katrina actress and one of the producers/director. When it became apparent to everyone with eyes that the Abbie was being sidelined in her own show, people started slagging the show and the ratings dropped. When Katrina was killed, there was hope for a return to season 1 greatness, but the die was cast. Fox/the producers really thought Mison could carry the show without Nicole and got the rude awakening when no one watched the 4th season. It was further insulting when they brought in a woman of color and thought she was interchangeable for Abbie. I’ve never been so disgusted with a show in my entire life, and I’ve watched quite a few destroy their shows by chasing the wrong fandoms.
Yeah I loved that show in the first season, the chemistry between the leads was soooo good and we were all looking for something between them, plus there was this cool fantasy/scifi element to it. Then they brought in the ex wife/dead wife thing and there was an evil kid or something and it just got dumb. I honestly stopped watching after the first half of the season season because it was clear they were sidelining Abby and it just got dumb.
Omg I didn’t know they did all that, seriously?!?.. I stopped watching after the dead wife stuff/can’t even remember if I continued.. that’s awful!!! UGHHhhh it was so good in S1 too..
Huge fan of hers and loved that show because she was soo good in it…. there was a huge fan base on tumblr that celebrated the downfall of the show after the way they treated Nicole.
She’s a talented actress, I hope she gets the career she deserves
I fucking LOVED Sleepy Hollow! The first season was so smart and well done. Then it started getting campy in the second season and the show started going off the rails. I honestly thought she left since the show was turning into crap and she wanted to do better work. It’s just another example of how women of color are treated as second class citizens to their white counterparts. I am glad she came forward and is talking. She is way too talented to be sidelined like that. She needs roles worthy of her talent.
Omg.. damn! I watched this show too and loved their banter and friendship! Ahhh.. I remember when they brought in the dead wife and I was like, what is this? Why would you do this… ??? When the two costars were already so great ??? But now I know… ugh. What a bummer. That’s awful how they treated her. I hate it. That must’ve been so rough for her, to not say anything about it all this time and to be so sick.. jeez.
She’s gorgeous…
Sleepy Hollow played themselves 😂😂
As a former CNA, I tremble in fear at the mention of C-diff. No ma’am.
I also echo what some other comments are saying, I really liked the show season 1, but then his wife was a witch and blah blah curse blah blah prophecy blah blah ghost wife snooze? I think I stopped watching before this actress left but she truly was the best part of the show.
Omg, I was reading the article and comments and the light turned on when I reached @Veronica S’s comment. Years ago someone told me she had what sounded like “seedif” or something like that. Then at a later time a friend told me the nursing home where her mother resided had people catching it, that it was highly contagious and difficult to treat. I asked her to pronounce it and how it was spelled. She didn’t know the spelling. Damn the powers that be were lucky crew members etc didn’t come down with it. So reckless and LAX on the matter. Dipshits.
I really like her character and was so mad with what they were doing with her story getting less and less consistent… It all makes sense now. I watched until she left the show and stop watching after because it was garbage.
I never watched Sleepy Hollow but saw Shame. Beharie and Fassbender had a lovely albeit short story line. Romantic and playful but cut short by Fassbender’s inability to be part of a relationship instead relying on the sexual rush of porn and sex workers
I really loved that show at first, but it went south very quickly. She was by FAR the best part of that show. I never watched after she left.
I remember at the time there were hashtags in support of her character:
#AbbieMillsDeservesBetter
And it’s sad to see we should have also had one for #NicoleBeharieDeservesBetter
It so sad and frustrating and angrifying that racist sexist jerks think treating someone like that is A-Okay.
The production of the show tried to destroy her reputation. She was blacklisted. She was blacklisted for being sick and for wanting time off to heal. F**k that noise!
This show was produced by the same people who also produce Hawaii Five-0 — they also refused to give a pay increase to the Asian lead actors of that show.
makes sense
I loved season one of Sleepy Hollow, by season 2 they were inexplicably sidelining Nicole Beharie despite her strong chemistry with her co-lead Tom Mison that garnered the show a devoted fanbase. I heard they were killing her off (I live in the U.K.) so I quit before it got there, because s.2 annoyed me so much. They basically destroyed a show because they didn’t want the interracial will they won’t they plot to turn into anything was how many fans at the time saw it. Killing her off made no sense to the plot/contradicted the whole premise of the show too. There was a big divide in the fans too with white women only caring about Tom, it was super disappointing to see, especially as Beharie was so great that first season when given the opportunity to shine. I will never forget that and have always thought her co-star must not have stood up for her or taken any kind of a stand. They also fired Orlando Jones for no real reason, whole lotta racism going on. It sucks that she was sick and punished for it too, glad she is speaking out now.