Julianne Hough Speaks Out After Gabrielle Union Called Her Out For Donning Blackface In 2013

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Julianne Hough is speaking out for the first time since being called out by Gabrielle Union for donning blackface in 2013.

The “Dancing With The Stars” judge posted a video talking to her fans. She said, “Good morning everyone, I just wanted to first and foremost send you guys some love. Umm, it’s been a really difficult for everyone in the world and especially in our country."

"The beautiful part is everyone is coming together and uniting to make systemic change in the world. And with all of that I’m sure we are all feeling a sense of anxiety and fear and also passion and excitement about what can happen."

She ended, "I still feel there is an opportunity for us to connect to our self and it is so important for us to have our daily practice.” She then promoted her virtual dance class She hasn’t said a word about Gabrielle’s complaint.

As The Blast previously reported, earlier this month, Gabrielle Union filed a complaint with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing against Universal Television, Fremantle Production, Syco Entertainment, and Simon Cowell.

In the lawsuit, she accused them of firing her after she spoke up about alleged racism on the set of “America’s Got Talent.” The complaint starts off, “Union, an African American woman, was a judge on America’s Got Talent (“AGT”), but, in what has become a widely publicized matter, was terminated from the Cowell-created show after just one season. Sadly, what led to Union’s termination was her refusal to remain silent in the face of a toxic culture at AGT that included racist jokes, racist performances, sexual orientation discrimination, and excessive focus on female judges’ appearances, including race-related comments. Union raised numerous complaints while working on AGT.”

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In the court documents, Gabrielle raised concern of the producers deciding to hire Julianne to sit next to her as co-judge.

The suit says producers “made a decision to hire Union as a judge on AGT while simultaneously hiring Hough, a two-time professional champion of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars who had recently gone through a widely publicized scandal for personally appearing in blackface. Hough apologized in response to the public uproar that she caused. Combining someone who so openly wore blackface (Hough) with someone who is black and regularly advocates on behalf of minorities (Union) should have at least alerted Telegdy that this could cause Union to experience some trepidation or concern about being unprotected from racially insensitive individuals while working as a judge on AGT. "

She added, “Make no mistake, NBC is part of the problem. NBC’s current attitude towards racism can be deduced from its defense of those individuals who have appeared in blackface, including but not limited to, Julianne Hough (“Hough”), Jimmy Fallon (“Fallon”), Fred Armisen (“Armisen”) and Ted Danson (“Danson”) (whom NBC hired multiple times even after he wore minstrel show blackface and used the “n-word” publicly)