During an appearance on MSNBC, Jane Fonda said it’s “too bad” that it took the “famous and white” Harvey Weinstein accusers to finally call attention to sexual harassment in the workplace.
“It feels like something has shifted,” the actress said on “All In With Chris Hayes” on Wednesday. “It’s too bad that it’s probably because so many of the women that were assaulted by Harvey Weinstein are famous and white and everybody knows them.”
“This has been going on a long time to black women and other women of color and it doesn’t get out quite the same,” said Fonda, who was appearing on the show alongside her “Women’s Media Center” co-founder Gloria Steinem.
Weinstein has been publicly accused of sexual harassment, assault and rape by dozens of women since The New York Times first broke the story earlier this month. Most of the women who have come forward have been white, with the notable exception of “12 Years a Slave” star Lupita Nyong’o, who accused the producer of inappropriate behavior in a lengthy op-ed.
In an interview with CNN, Fonda said she had previously known about Weinstein’s behavior, and was “ashamed” that she wasn’t the one to speak out sooner. “I found out about Harvey about a year ago, and I’m ashamed that I didn’t say anything right then,” she said, revealing that she was told about Weinstein by actress Rosanna Arquette.
Asked why she didn’t come forward then, Fonda said, “Because I guess it hadn’t happened to me and so I didn’t feel it was my place.”
“If you steal money, you probably get arrested and convicted, because everybody says stealing is wrong,” Steinem told host Chris Hayes on Wednesday. “But if you do something that is very sexist or racist, because there still is a critical mass of bias in this country, it takes more cumulative instances for it to be recognized. So we have reached a tipping point, I think.”