Funny gal Tiffany Haddish has been pretty open about hardships she faced in her younger days. One experience in particular she's been very vocal about is the time she spent in the foster care system, separated from her siblings, and its impact on the rest of her life. Now that she’s a success in Hollywood, and her talent has scored her an Emmy nomination for her comedy special
Black Mitzvah, Tiffany spoke about the kids in foster care that have given her a gift way greater than any television academy ever could.“On the same day that I found out [about the nomination], I felt very grateful, but I went to the mailbox, and there was all these handwritten notes from these foster youth that I’ve been talking to over the quarantine,” she explained to Jimmy Fallon on
The Tonight Show (weeknights 11:35ET on CTV) via video-chat. “I’ve been Zoom-calling with a bunch of foster kids in different group homes. And it was 40 messages, 40 little handwritten notes and cards, and they drew on them and they coloured them and that was the best award ever.”
“When I get down, I just open those up and read them. That’s better than any trophy I could ever get,” she added. At the
end of July, Tiffany joined L.A. City Council Member Herb Wesson to help hand out 700 laptops to kids in the L.A. County foster system as part of the Wesson's digital inclusion program. Haddish was joined by Gina Prophet, a supervisor at the Palmdale Department of Children and Family Services, who was Tiffany's social worker from 1990 to 1996 when she was in foster care herself.Tiffany continues to be an inspiration and consistently takes her past trauma and turns it into beauty and wisdom. More of this in 2020!With a
freshly shaved head (this time, courtesy of her handsome and talented boyfriend
Common), the
Tuca & Bertie star has more than just the
well-being of our future generations on her mind. She also has a pretty funny theory on how to end systemic racism and even global conflict. “I think the key to it is all women just stop having sex. Everyone just close their legs, just shut it down.”Cue Jimmy Fallon gasping in shock.[video_embed id='2004001']RELATED: Tiffany Haddish says racism is making her afraid to have children [/video_embed]“I know this has happened in history before! Wars have stopped because of this,” Tiffany continued emphatically. Calling on heterosexual women to stop having sex with men until justice is served, she even acknowledged that all the "Karens" would eventually get on board too because they’d be overwhelmed with picking up the slack.Even though Haddish is (likely) playing up this idea for yuks, and laughingly admits she’s incorporated it into her comedy routine, there is actually an historical basis for what's essentially called a “sex strike.” Apart from the famous Greek play
Lysistrata that popularized the idea, sex strikes have been
effective for women in Colombia, Liberia, Kenya and the Iroquois nation, to stop brutal conflicts spearheaded by the men in their communities and effect change.However, in recent years when other famous women, like
Alyssa Milano or
Janelle Monáe, have called for a sex strike, it has been met with backlash from women’s rights advocates. Apart from being heteronormative bent and erasing the sexuality of those who identify as LGBTQ+, pansexual and elsewhere on the sexuality spectrum, it also frames sex as something that is done to women, rather than something that women actively engage in or enjoy. It doesn’t lend itself to a sex-positive world where women can actively enjoy their bodies and their partners.Without that, we wouldn’t have “WAP” and that's too sad a future to imagine.You can find out if Tiffany takes home a trophy when
The 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards air Sunday, September 20 at 8ET on CTV. Catch
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights at 11:35ET on CTV.[video_embed id='2013356']BEFORE YOU GO: Ciara celebrates Black excellence in ‘Rooted’ video [/video_embed]
