Vanessa Morgan Speaks Out About ‘Riverdale’ Using Black Actresses as “Sidekick Nondimensional Characters”

From Cosmopolitan

• Vanessa Morgan says she’s tired of being used as a “sidekick nondimensional character” on Riverdale.

• The actress also confirmed she’s paid the least on-set.

Riverdale star Vanessa Morgan is opening up about racial inequality on the show’s set. The actress first tweeted about the issue on Sunday, writing, “Tired of how black people are portrayed in media, tired of us being portrayed as thugs, dangerous or angry scary people. Tired of us also being used as sidekick nondimensional characters to our white leads. Or only used in the ads for diversity but not actually in the show. It starts with the media. I’m not being quiet anymore.”

Vanessa also explained that she’s paid the least among her fellow cast members and feels like her character is the “token biracial bisexual.”

Additionally, she made it clear that her castmates don’t have anything to do with the decisions made in the writers’ room and responded to a supportive tweet from Lili Reinhart.

In case you need more convincing that this is a troubling pattern on Riverdale (and in television in general), actress Asha Bromfield weighed in about her experience with how the show treated the Pussycats:

The Riverdale writers’ room has yet to respond to Vanessa’s tweets, but clearly, they have some work to do.

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