Netflix was accused of racial and gender bias over the weekend by the American comedian Mo’Nique.
The television streaming site reportedly offered the African American actress $500,000 last week for a comedy special, significantly lower than the sum of $11million that was offered to Amy Schumer (later upped to $13million) and the rumoured $40million for Chris Rock’s two upcoming Netflix shows.
Mo’Nique addressed her Instagram followers to discuss the disparity, and called for a boycott of the service.
“Hi my loves. I am asking that you stand with me and boycott Netflix for gender bias and colour bias,” she said in her social media video. Watch below:
After discussing the pay disparity, Mo’Nique claimed that Netflix believed $500,000 to be the figure she would bring to the site, and that her resume would not be considered in the pricing.
However, according to Mo’Nique’s account, Netflix then explained that Schumer’s figure was based on her selling out Madison Square Garden twice and releasing a major film over the summer.
Wanda Sykes then joined the discussion on Twitter, thanking Mo’Nique for speaking up and claiming that she was only offered $250,000 for her comedy special.
.@moworldwide, thank you for speaking out. @netflix offered me less than half of your $500k. I was offended but found another home. #EPIX
— Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) January 21, 2018
Mo’Nique then released a follow up video last night with Wanda Skyes’ figure added to the disparity.
“Now some would ask, why is it that Wanda Sykes and Mo’Nique, these two black women who have 50+ years in the comedy game, be offered $750,000 between the both of us and Amy Schumer get $13million?” the comedian said.
She added: “This has nothing to do with going against Amy Schumer. If our sister was able to get that, she was supposed to.”
The Amy Schumer Netflix show, The Leather Special, was released in March last year but received negative reviews due to an organised alt-right ‘trolling’ of the release.