Photo Credit: Trina McGee/Instagram
Trina McGee was the only black character in the 90s sitcom Boy Meets World and revealed in an interview with Yahoo Entertainment that she was called Aunt Jemima on set among other things. She was clearly made to feel like an outsider by sitting and watching everyone else get invited to conventions etc., leading to feelings of being iced out.
Over the last months with so much tension going on, these two people in this pic with me have really gone out of their way to check on me, show sincerity and healing. I did not expect this but am grateful for this experience. Let the healing begin. Yes! pic.twitter.com/Dyp0gMeYG4
— Trina McGee (@realtrinamcgee) June 10, 2020
“I saw four white figures constantly moving, constantly getting invitations to conventions. So to me, that gave me the feeling that I’m kind of being iced out of something…[I couldn’t] shake the hurt of some words and situations that were said…I didn’t say it 20 years ago but I’m saying it now. And honestly, I said it way before I knew any of the world’s changes were about to happen.”
She then spoke about her co-star Will Friedle, who played Eric Matthews calling her Aunt Jemimia. “I don’t think that Will, at the time, really understood the depth of that…he’s not a Black woman. I didn’t have a hairdresser on the set of ‘Boy Meets World.’ All those little micro braids you see, I stayed up all night doing them right before I went on national television for myself…I feel like I’m always the one who had to squelch it and move on. ‘You could get sued. You could get fired. You could ruin this person’s career.’ What about me? What about all this stuff I’m taking and ingesting in me, and not really totally realizing how much it’s lowering my vibration, my self-esteem.”
Her onscreen best friend Topanga, played by Danielle Fishel has since apologized for their disagreements over the years.
I owed @realtrinamcgee an apology for being rude, cold, & distant when she guest starred on GMW (her tweet regarding warm hellos being met with cold blank stares was about me). Trina and I spoke over a month ago and she gracefully accepted my apology. ❤️
— Danielle Fishel Karp (@daniellefishel) June 7, 2020
Mcgee has also stated that Friedle has apologized to her for his actions back in April.
During a time that we’re doing a reckoning on racism in America, stories like this are important. I’m constantly hearing people say they don’t understand what the problem is. We have the Tyler Perry’s and BET networks for reasons like this. While it was great for her to have this role as the only black person on the show, look at what she experienced. When you have your own, you don’t have to deal with these things. And given the recent debate on Aunt Jemima, I’m sure that struck a chord with her being called that I assume as some sick joke.
In other Mcgee news, I have to admit that I would love to see her in reality television. At 50, she’s absolutely gorgeous. She’s had a great resume, legitimately has worked and continues to do so compared to many of these other women on these shows and go look at her Instagram account. Who wouldn’t want to see that regularly on television again? Hopefully she takes our advice because that would be a serious move for her.
