Why Taraji P. Henson deserves less
With all due respect
I haven’t found myself agreeing with DJ Vlad as much since it was revealed that VladTV is a propaganda organ of the international Zionist conspiracy, but he brings up a good point. Why should Taraji P. Henson be paid as much as other actresses?
The Baby Boy actress recently made headlines for bitching and moaning that she continues to make minimum wage for an actress despite having been in the industry for decades now.
On her most recent film, an adaptation of the stage musical version of the Color Purple, she said she was forced to drive herself to the set and share a dressing room with other actresses. She didn’t say whether or not they could see each other change clothes, but I’d definitely be curious to know.
I can relate to having to keep starting new jobs at minimum wage despite having been in an industry for years. During my illustrious, storied career in fast food, I received raises due to an increase in the minimum wage twice. That had to have been a rare feat, given how infrequently they increase the minimum wage. Not to brag.
It’s possible that if I stayed at the same place long enough I would have been able to climb the pay scale, but I had to switch jobs on occasion. Sometimes this would be mid-shift, during an emotionally charged conversation about whose responsibility it was to go downstairs and get another box of ketchup packets, and sometimes it would be over the phone, as my shift was set to begin, after an especially long evening of community outreach, so to speak.
Similarly, Taraji P. Henson would be making more money if there was a business case for these studios paying her any more than they absolutely have to. She’s been around for a long time, but I don’t know that she’s truly distinguished herself. The only movies she’s been in that I can think of are the aforementioned Baby Boy and Hustle and Flow. Those movies came out when I was a child, and I’m damn near retirement age. What has she done in the interim?
On X f/k/a Twitter, I saw people comparing her standard rate, a very generous $75,000 per film (plus, I’m sure they comp her gasoline if she submits receipts to accounts payable), to the gargantuan net worth of the likes of Cameron Diaz, arguably the GOAT actress; Julia Roberts, who’s unattractive but has a certain charisma; and Reese Witherspoon, who owns the rights to a lot of highly successful chick-lit novels. She’s like the white equivalent of Oprah.
Speaking of which, if Taraji had a problem with the accommodations on the Color Purple, she needed to take that up with Oprah. Oprah hasn’t been on TV in decades now, but I’m sure she has enough money to put Taraji’s Uber rides on her AmEx and get her a box lunch at a Panera if necessary—a Turkey Bravo with bacon on whole wheat, a bag of gross baked potato chips and a chocolate chip cookie. I’d avoid getting her any of that Charged Lemonade, if she’s out here on the promo circuit acting a damn fool as it is.
Ironically, the original Color Purple, from the 1980s, was all about how black men aren’t worth a shit, based on a book written by a black woman who was married to a white Jewish man. When the relationship went awry, she went hardcore anti-Semite, as if she were on an Ivy League campus, which is why she hasn’t been trotted out to promote this new film. In the new version, they apparently took things further and had female characters eating the box. Frequent VladTV guest Lil Boosie, who took his daughter, was forced to walk out.
If this movie had been produced by a black guy, even if it were Tyler Perry, I’m sure we would have heard nothing but how black women are the most disrespected, least protected group of people, how black women are the most educated people in the history of education, Claudine Gay’s rampant fraud notwithstanding, how there aren’t enough dark butts in rap videos, so on and so forth ad infinitum. Instead, we’ve got Taraji out here caping for Oprah, complaining about social media trying to pit black woman against black woman.
If anyone actually went to see the Color Purple, there may have been more of a case for paying Taraji more than minimum wage, or at least allowing her to take home some of the food from the craft services table, if she’d been interested. As it is, she may have been overpaid. People are staying away in droves, I guess content to watch black women eat the box in the replies to Sexyy Red tweets on X. And ultimately that’s what this comes down to: If she can’t draw enough people to the theater for the film to turn a profit, she’s lucky to have a job in the first place.