Zoe Saldana said that she realized sexism is more powerful than racism in America following Donald Trump’s victory in the election last year.
“There was a realization that I just had in this last election is that, that America is racist — 0f course, there’s racism everywhere, I’m not saying that there isn’t — but I think that sexism is much stronger and it’s much more aggressive,” Saldana said in an interview on SiriusXM’s “Sway in the Morning” on Thursday.
The “Guardians of the Galaxy” star said that evidence is everywhere, from the fact that “CEOs are primarily males” to the way “art is primarily male-driven.”
“It has to do with trusting leadership in women,” she said, pointing out that Hillary Clinton’s qualifications for president were repeatedly called into question. “I found it really offensive that Hillary Clinton was questioned in [that] way,” she said.
“I’m just like, ‘People, she’s up against a man that calls women pigs on national television and she’s incompetent?’ There’s a big problem here and we have to address this pink elephant in the room. And it has to do with sexism in America,” Saldana continued.
Elsewhere in the interview, Saldana also discussed race, calling on blacks and Latinos to focus on bettering themselves rather than bemoaning racism.
“I’m not troubled by the way I look,” she said, adding that race isn’t always the reason for her setbacks in life. “Maybe I didn’t get [that part] because I didn’t deserve it … there are other factors besides people always coming after you. People have lives.”
The actress also said that she no longer checks her social media feeds because she doesn’t like to read the negative commentary people share online.
“I think it’s going to change the more and more AfroLatinos just brush it off their shoulders,” she said. “Focus on your education, your uprising. And when you’re in that position, when you’re the president of that network … then you can basically lead by example in the way that you succeed, not in the way that you denounce what happened to you.”