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When Gabrielle Union and a few friends were traveling to Croatia in 2019 for work, they were eagerly awaiting a little pop culture sightseeing next door.
“We wanted to recreate Cersei’s footsteps from Game Of Thrones“Union, 48, tells PEOPLE that she visited the popular attraction in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
What happened instead was a terrifying encounter that still shakes her to this day.
When Union, who recounts the incident in his new memoirs, Do you have something stronger?, available now, and his little group walked into what they thought was a gay bar in order to have a drink, they looked around and realized they were surrounded by memories of Jim Crow and “neo-Nazi patrons” “which immediately intimidated Union and his friends.
“I have never known this level of hatred and the threat of physical violence,” Union recalls, who says a threatening group followed them to the streets when they left. “It was such a shake. And the fear and adrenaline of what happened made us all numb.”
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For more on Union and her new memoirs, read this week’s issue of PEOPLE, on the stands on Friday.
But the “heartbreaking and terrifying” encounter in Croatia is not unusual for Union.
“To walk through each instance is to accompany you every day of my life,” she says. “There are micro-attacks and there are all attacks. That’s what it’s like to be a person of color in this country.”
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Continue Union: “We think we are post-racial but we are not. And that is more than disappointing. I don’t think people understand the violence that accompanies racism, whether it is if you are sued or if you come across watching someone wearing blackface for a paycheck. It’s violent. “
Indeed, Union argues that Hollywood in particular still has a long way to go when it comes to pervasive and disturbing racial inequalities and offenses, including the fact that it was only last year that many shows of. Popular televisions have removed episodes where blackface was used onscreen.
“Who finds the blackface funny,” Union asks. “What about the harm it causes and the racism it’s rooted in is funny?” You make fun of me, my features and the stereotypes of people who look like me. Why are you okay? “
Ian West / PA Images via Getty
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Union also writes in her memoir that she can’t count the number of times she’s been one of the only black people on a set and that she often faces constant wage inequalities within minority communities.
“We’re still talking about the first Black this, the first Latina this, and the first Asian this,” says Union. “It’s not progress. Why do we always have firsts? It should be something that makes us all ashamed.”
Continue Union: “They roll down the top ten highest paid actors list and you see a few people there. But show me the top 100 highest paid actors. What does that look like? There are a lot of people out there. turn a blind eye to racism. But silence is complicity. When you see something, be it sexist, homophobic or transphobic, say something. It should be a call to arms for real radical and impactful change.
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