After receiving several Emmy Awards RuPaul is under fire for a lack of diversity within his crew.
What We Know:
- RuPaul and his show “RuPaul’s Drag Race” won four Emmys on Sunday at the Emmy Award Show including, Outstanding Competition Program and Outstanding Host for Reality/Competition Program. When going on stage he was joined by a team that appeared to be mostly made up of white men.
- Behind the scenes, Essence reporter Danielle Young asked him about the importance of diversity behind the scenes in the television industry and even brought to attention the crew that was on stage with him as he was being questioned. RuPaul’s response to her question left some feeling as if their questions were still unanswered.
- He made a joke about LGBTQ+ community saying that he represents “the BLT community” as well as the LGBT community. He states “First of all, the host of our show is Black, gay and a drag queen, so check, check and check. But we’re pretty diverse. There are lots of different types of people here. Is it important, absolutely. It wasn’t easy getting here. You know what I had to do. And some of the things, I’m not even going to repeat that I had to do.”
- RuPaul’s response wasn’t adequate enough for many people on social media who believed he did not address the root of her question. The reporter her self tweeted “What bothered me about RuPaul’s response. 1. When I said he reps the LGBT community, he said also the BLT community,” Young wrote, expressing her reacting feeling with a side-eye emoji. “2. He thinks bc he is Black, gay & a drag queen, that somehow is diversity quota is met. 3. He couldn’t quote The Color Purple. 4. Look at the ‘diversity.”
Backlash aside RuPaul and his show will continue to produce work as ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ has upcoming spinoffs in Thailand and the UK this fall.
In the press room at the @TheEmmys, I asked @RuPaul to address the diversity or lack thereof in his show @RuPaulsDragRace. And… pic.twitter.com/kL1EYxJQXK
— Danielle Young (@RhapsoDani) September 23, 2019
