Mo’Nique’s Moment

Finally getting Netflix to air her special on her terms, the actress and comedian has become a beacon for people, like her, who’ve had to struggle against social norms.

by

Today’s Based idea is: Know your worth. Who better to demonstrate that than Mo’Nique, stand-up comedian and Academy Award–winning actress whom one might know from classics such as Soul Plane (2004) or Precious (2009) or The Parkers (1999–2004). Her most recent work “My Name Is Mo’Nique” is a hilarious, moving, well-deserved tribute to her life story. But what really made the Netflix special was the shining sense of triumph.

In 2018, Netflix offered Mo’Nique a streaming special for a paltry payment of half a million dollars. Mo’Nique accurately assessed the offer as lowball, given her iconic, award-winning career in both comedy and drama. What’s more, Mo’Nique sensed an attempt by a massive media player with an essentially unlimited budget to devalue her worth. And what’s more, she correctly presumed that the low offer was a reflection of what the giant thought of not just her career, but of her personhood, as well.

Mo’Nique called the offer “color bias” and “gender bias.” She rightly noted that other comedians, such as Dave Chappelle and Amy Schumer, had received far more in compensation. Both were paid in the millions for their specials. As others have noted, this combination of race and gender bias gets slung at Black women plenty. So much so that a fresh term was coined for it in the early 2010s: misogynoir.

Mo’Nique knew that accepting the offer would send a message about both herself and people like her. The message would be one of gratitude for a pittance. It would be accepting that some people are worth less.

More from Ramenda Cyrus

The comedian’s call for a Netflix boycott was immediately scoffed at and jeered. Accusations of arrogance were often paired with outright verbal abuse against her.

It was clear what many in the public valued more. It was clear the innumerable cultural contributions that Mo’Nique has made—from memes to her barrier-breaking performances— meant far less to them than an entertainment company, even though it has continuously screwed over its customer base. It was clear that misogyny and racism could be accepted as long as it wasn’t inconveniencing the public.

When Mo’Nique made supporting her inconvenient, and people disrespected her for daring to ask them for such, she was not deterred. The actress filed a lawsuit against Netflix in 2019, claiming discrimination for the company’s bad-faith negotiations. Eventually, Netflix and Mo’Nique settled the dispute through mediation.

And soon after, Mo’Nique accepted an offer from Netflix to produce the long-awaited special. While it is unclear how much Netflix ended up forking over, the satisfying element of this story is that we do know she got her money. She made sure of that.

The special, which was released in early April, exuded her sense of victory: not only in this one instance, but over all that she’s had to overcome. Throughout the special, she comes out in all her glory as someone who struggled in school, as someone who’s known pain and isolation, and as a woman who likes women. After a long battle, Mo’Nique is finally able to tell us what she wants to say, about herself and her career: that she knows struggle and that it will never break her down. And as she fights for herself, she fights for Black women, and everyone else like her who has been torn down by society.

As she put it to Refinery29: “The ones who spoke loudly before me gave me the strength to speak this loudly.”

You can count on the Prospect, can we count on you?

There's no paywall here. Your donations power our newsroom as we report on ideas, politics and power — and what’s really at stake as we navigate another presidential election year. Please, become a member, or make a one-time donation, today. Thank you!