Today, #TheBreakfastClub did an over-the-phone interview with Lena Waithe, writer and creator of the HBO hit show 'The Chi', discussing her knowledge pertaining to Jason Mitchell's sexual misconduct allegations. If you haven't heard, Jason Mitchell has allegedly been fired from the show due to sexual harassment that happened on set. If you don't know who Jason Mitchell is, he's the one that played the infamous Eazy-E in the biopic 'Straight Out Of Compton'.
Apparently, there has been rumors which allege that Lena knew about the sexual harassment during the taping of season 1 of 'The Chi'. Lena Waithe had time today to address the rumors and allegations about what happened when she was still working with Jason Mitchell and the other co-star that he allegedly sexually harassed.
In the interview, Lena says, " Seaon 1 of the of 'The Chi', that was shot [almost] a year ago and that was before people knew who I was, so I was one of those powerless women of color in this industry. Even though [people say], well you wrote a pilot, you created a show and you sold it. That's true. I didn't have a whole ton of power on that show or a lot of say. Mind you, I have a strong relationship with the studio and the network, but it's just kind of how things go, it's your first thing, you're mostly an employee on your own thing."
Lena continues, "I wasn't really aware, I knew what I was aware of stuff that I was dealing with on the show, but I wasn't made aware on what was happening with Tiffany until after the first season was wrapped. We did have a conversation, which I will keep private out of the respect for Tiffany, but we did have a discussion on what was inappropriate."
She even talks about hiring a woman of color to be the show runner for the show, someone that could handle the day to day business of the show. She says, "First season, was a white male, second season was a black woman. That was [my] indirect reaction to what I heard about what was going on on the show. I can already say that the idea of me not doing anything just isn't true."
Lena states that she was aware of Jason Mitchell's allegations after season 1 of the show and took it to HR for it to be handled. Lena went even further saying that both parties agreed to work on set together after the situation was resolved. She says, "There were huge precautions that we took. The writers had to take extensive sexual harassment training and there were extensive sexual harassment training on set. I remember Tiffany and I were texting and she said let's get some extensive sexual harassment training. I said absolutely."
All in all, Lena handle the situation to the best of her abilities. What are you thoughts about the issue?