How Mo’Nique’s Netflix Boycott Reveals One Silent Killer of Pay Equality

My, my, MY it has been a wild few days for comedian and actress Mo’Nique after she called for a Netflix boycott on Instagram following a pay dispute with the media-streaming giant.

According to Mo’Nique, Netflix offered her $500,000 for a comedy special while Amy Schumer (and her unique but powerful brand of mediocre) negotiated a $13 million pay day. Mo’Nique then asked Netflix why Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle received nearly $20 million for their comedy specials when she has the longevity and accolades behind her name as well.

Before I go further, to be clear, I have never connected with Mo’Nique’s brand of funny and I don’t watch Netflix so I am not partial to either party. However based on Netflix’s popularity, I would equate Mo’Nique’s ask to a vegan asking me to stop eating dairy on Thanksgiving — it ain’t happening.

With that said, Netflix is full of elephant dung.

Without question Mo’Nique was lowballed, as an Oscar winner no less. Comedian/actress and Emmy winner Wanda Sykes has furthered Mo’Nique’s stance, coming out saying she was offered less than HALF of the $500,000 Netflix offered Mo’Nique. LESS. THAN. HALF of $250,000 in an industry where male actor’s salary can increase up to $3.9 million after an Oscar win, while an Oscar win gets actresses a $500,000 salary increase on average according to the data. Meanwhile younger, lesser known male comedians like DeRay, who I honestly mistook for someone else, got paid $5 million for his Netflix special. (He has since said he was joking about getting $5 million, which further confirms his irrelevance so moving on.) I don’t know where the bias lies, but something is not computing.

I get it. We live in an age where popularity trumps most things, so I hear people when they say Mo’Nique is not as relevant or mainstream as an Amy, David or Chris. However, the pay differences are glaring. Netflix basically told Mo’Nique she is worth 25X less in the case of Amy, and even worth less compared to Chris and David. This is just too extreme. What was more troubling was the multitude of people, many fellow women of color, who told Mo’Nique she should take the chicken chump change and just been silent.

Now it is not my ministry to speak in absolute terms about who is wrong or right as I do think there are parts of Mo’Nique’s strategy that are on the struggle bus. Taking down Netflix won’t solve the problem. I think having these conversations and asking the hard questions about the whys (plural) the pay gaps persist, with women of color suffering the most.

Statistics tell us constantly women make 80 cents to a dollar every white male gets, but the gap widens according to race.

I will let these numbers settle in your system for a minute.

So if I am a Hispanic woman, I can lose more than $1 million over the course of a 40-year career. That is $1 million I don’t bring home to my family and you want me to be quiet, thereby comfortable, with that??? Nah, son.

I can’t tell you how many women I know personally, myself included, who were told to their face why they were passed over for a promotion for a male with less experience.

How many times are we told or even said, as minorities especially, that we should just be thankful that we are even in the room getting a check?

It is ingrained in us to just be the nice girl, but the nice girls aren’t getting paid as well as their counterparts.

For women of color especially, infiltrating spaces with this mindset where there are few people who look like us in these rooms, the task of asking for higher salaries can feel even more daunting.

It baffles me that in the age of #TimesUp and cross country women’s rights rallies we are berating a woman for simply asking for equal pay — and that is part of the problem. Ladies (and gents), we are enabling our own problem.

So whether or not you agree with Mo’Nique’s actions, we have to commend her for even speaking out on what we all know is an ongoing reality for professional women everywhere. That is the crux of her boycott, and that should be our main focus. Anything else we focus on is frivolous, and a distraction.

As I said on social media, I honestly do not know the best course of action is for someone in Mo’Nique’s position and I don’t know how we can end these wage disparities. I do know that being collectively silent has gotten us here — a world where the Harvey Weinsteins get away with assault for years and women still make as little as 55 cents to a dollar depending on your race. So it might be a gamble, but now more than ever it is time we bet on speaking the truth — out loud.