Prolific actor Wendell Pierce, who soared to fame from the classic series “The Wire” and has also starred in “Power Book III: Raising Kanan” and many other shows and movies, claims he was rejected for an apartment in Harlem by a White man.
Pierce, 60, shared this indignity and mortifying experience with his 300K followers on X on June 3.
“For those of you who don’t understand my righteous anger; I???m on 2 TV series, ‘ELSBETH’ and ‘RAISING KANAN.’ I’m filming SUPERMAN. Two years ago, I finished the fourth season of ‘JACK RYAN.’ Last year I finished a run on Broadway in DEATH OF A SALESMAN. Even with my proof of employment, bank statements and real estate holdings, a White apartment owner DENIED my application to rent the apartment … in Harlem, of all places.
There was an outpouring of support and outrage from Pierce’s fans and others that the esteemed thespian could be denied a home by a White man in Harlem, New York, of all places.
Pierce, while grateful for his fans’ desire to take action on his behalf, said he was only giving an example of rancid racism in housing. He leveraged the public’s attention to throw the spotlight on flagrant discrimination being exemplified in another arena.
Wendell Pierce calls attention to the racially-tinged case involving the Freedom Fund
“While I appreciate the response to my own personal experience of discrimination in housing, I only mentioned it as an example of the insidious nature of bigotry. This court decision is profoundly more disturbing and injurious,” Pierce railed on X.
Pierce spotlighted a current court case involving businesswoman Arian Simone, She is the Black co-owner and CEO of the Fearless Fund in Atlanta which provides grants for Black women-owned businesses. Simone and her partners assert that African American females have been traditionally and consistently turned down loans via traditional means despite their resumés, portfolios and credit scores.
On June 3, a federal appeals court blocked the Fearless Fund from providing funding to help Black women proprietors sustain and grow their businesses.
