Tyrese Gibson Accuses Hollywood Of ‘Colorism,’ Says Lost Roles To 'Lighter-Skinned Black Men’ [Video]

Tyrese Gibson has opened up about the racism he faced in Hollywood. The “Fast & Furious” actor got candid about being subjected to colorism and losing roles to "lighter-skinned black" men.

When asked about his experience with colorism on “Leah’s Lemonade,” the 42-year-old actor said, “Terrence Howard has no idea how many roles that I was about to book and they went with him because he’s the lighter-skinned black man with the green eyes. It’s crazy to me, like, I’m No. 1. I’m the star. I’m this blue-black, you know, all of the things that I was laughed about in the hood.”

The rapper-turned-actor added, “And then you look at Lupita [Nyong’o] and the Viola Davises of the world, and there is this kind of, this shift that has happened. I think we should all stay humble because it’s interesting how white people created this kind of colorism. The mixed-race gets to be in the house and the black blacks get to work in the hot sun and pick cotton.”

During the interview, he also shared his first brush-up with colorism as a child. “Throughout my whole childhood, it was not cool to be dark skin in the hood. It was always the light-skinned black people that seemed to have gotten all the attention and all the love and considered pretty, or attractive, or handsome,” Gibson said. “And since I’ve been in Hollywood we dealt with the same thing.”

Despite losing several projects to Howard, there is no bad blood between the two actors. Gibson revealed that he recommended Howard for his forthcoming thriller film “The System,” which he will produce and star in.

“We’re able to joke about it now. I was the star of the film. They had an idea to go with someone else, who I won’t mention, and then I suggested Terrence Howard,” Gibson explained. “And he thanked me for like, a week straight.”

Gibson was last seen in “F9: The Last Saga” which also stars Vin Diesel, John Cena, Jason Statham, Michelle Rodriguez, Helen Mirren, Charlize Theron, among others. The movie earned the biggest opening at the box office since the outset of the pandemic with total earnings of $500 million globally.