Comedian Wanda Sykes is being dragged for saying the quiet part out loud and admitting she will choose job candidates based on their race and gender.
The 61-year-old celebrity proudly made the admission last week at Variety’s Power of Women event in Los Angeles.
“My joy is when I’m able to hire somebody. And you know who I like to hire? Women. … I’ll be upfront with you. When it comes to a position and I look on the paper — she might be right here, and he’s up there,” Sykes said, indicating with her hands that the man was in a slightly elevated position compared to the woman. 
She went on, “I’m hiring the woman. That’s just how I operate. And I’ll be honest with you, if she’s a black woman — oh, pssh. Girl, you got the job.”
The crowd gave her a big round of applause for acknowledging her bias.
“When women thrive, the community thrives,” Sykes added, before throwing in a punch line. “We make everyone around us better. When you get women, when we win, everybody wins. When men win, sometimes they get a younger wife.”
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Wanda Sykes says she prefers not to hire a man or white person <a href="https://t.co/2zioWv2wjS">pic.twitter.com/2zioWv2wjS</a>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1984330496114114707?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 31, 2025</a></blockquote>
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“What I plan on doing is to continue to create projects — and even in my stand-up — to speak and represent more of what powerful women can do. We’re at a moment in time where, with everything that’s going on in the government, we need to create projects where life imitates art,” she continued. 
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“Looking at what’s happening with cutting SNAP benefits; that’s going to affect single mothers. I want to do things that speak to them and uplift them. … Use your power to uplift women. If we did that, and if that’s the way we moved, we would have two female presidents by now.”
Social media commenters blasted Sykes for bragging about discriminating in her hiring practices.
“Haha cool this is totally illegal,” conservative commentator Megyn Kelly <a href="https://x.com/megynkelly/status/1984372349215658407?s=43">replied</a>. 
“Why do people think it’s OK to be so blatantly racist and sexist?” another account <a href="https://x.com/OneHegemony/status/1984372640170271192">posted</a>.
“Where&#8217;s the outrage from the left who cry ‘racism’ at the drop of the hat?” echoed a third.

Wanda Sykes

Wanda Sykes Brags About Her Hiring Bias: ‘If She’s A Black Woman, Girl You Got The Job’

Wanda Sykes Brags About Her Hiring Bias: 'If She's A Black Woman, Girl You Got The Job'

Bias

Celebrities

Discrimination

Racial Bias

U.S.

Women

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/wanda-sykes">Wanda Sykes</a> isn’t happy with her longtime friend and colleague <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/dave-chappelle">Dave Chappelle</a> making jokes about transgender people.
Chappelle came under fire when his Netflix special “The Closer” came out in 2021. In it, the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/comedy">comedian</a> claimed to be “Team TERF,” an acronym for <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/transgender">trans-exclusionary</a> radical feminist. He also defended “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling, who has been criticized for stating that biological sex is a fact and that men cannot be women.
His statements caused a national uproar and demands for Chappelle to be canceled. Employees at Netflix staged a walkout in protest. 
During a recent interview with <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/wanda-sykes-netflix-special-dave-chappelle-will-smith-trans-rights-1235622270/">Variety</a>, Sykes discussed jokes she made about “inclusive” bathroom policies which allow people to enter whichever bathroom they want depending on the gender they identify with.
“I knew that it’s such a delicate issue to talk about. I’m not trans, but they have my support, 100%,” Sykes told the publication.  
“I wanted to find something where I can shine some light on what they’re going through, to show how just stupid and hateful really it is. I was in a woman’s bathroom one time, and I was like, ‘Who would want to come in here anyway? It was like, I kind of want to go check out the men’s room. Sometimes, it’s even cleaner.’ And that’s how that whole bit started. I’ve always just been grossed out by bathrooms.”
When asked if her bit “balances out” what Chappelle said about transgender-related topics, Sykes claimed the comedian did damage to transgender people.
“Um, I don’t know about balancing it out, because I think what he said was so hurtful and damaging to the trans community. So yeah, the scale is still tipped, I will say, in their favor. But I know I wanted to say something, because so much has been said on that platform,” she said, adding that she’s hoping to fall “on the other side of it.”
When asked if she talked to Chappelle since the drama with “The Closer,” Sykes said she still “loves” him but hasn’t seen him since the show was released. 
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to him. If our paths did cross, I totally would say something,” she told Variety. 
Sykes also said she takes it as a “compliment” when people call her a “woke” comedian.
“It’s pretty funny. If you want to give me the label of a ‘woke comic,’ that’s fine. That’s great. What makes me laugh is that they say that like it’s an insult: ‘Oh, they’re woke.’ Thank you!” she said.

Wanda Sykes Criticizes Dave Chappelle For ‘Hurtful And Damaging’ Trans Jokes

Wanda Sykes Criticizes Dave Chappelle For 'Hurtful And Damaging' Trans Jokes

comedian

Comedy

Dave Chappelle

Transgender

Comedian Wanda Sykes, famed for, among other things, chanting like a defiant four-year-old, “Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay” at the Oscars, weighed in with her typically erudite take on the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, attacking conservatives in the middle of the country.
The Supreme Court issued its ruling on Friday; Sykes made her comments on Late Night with Stephen Colbert Monday night.
“The problem is that middle stuff. It is those states in the middle, that red stuff,” Sykes pronounced.
Sykes was prompted by Clobert, who asked solicitously, “How ya’ doin? How ya’ doin?”
“I’m a black gay woman and I have a daughter so I’m not doing so well right now. I’m a little salty,” Sykes declared.
“You’re a little salty?” Colbert repeated.
“I’m a little salty right now,” Sykes reiterated.
“Sprinkle a little salt, let’s put some flavor on here,” Colbert pressed.
“It just sucks, man. It really does,” Sykes said articulately. “The country, it’s no longer a democracy, right? It’s no longer majority rule.”
Expert constitutionalist Colbert agreed: “No. Certainly not in the Senate; certainly not in the Supreme Court.”
“It’s no longer majority rule,” Sykes repeated. “I mean, it’s like, these judges, they basically lied during their confirmation hearings, right?”
“Especially Kavanaugh,” Colbert suggested.
“So how can you be a Supreme Court Justice and you’re just lyin’? They had their fingers crossed or somethin’ or what? It’s just a bunch of horse****. It really is,” Sykes ranted.
Then she mounted her attack on conservatives in middle America: “To me it’s like, the problem is that middle stuff. It is those states in the middle, that red stuff. Why do they get to tell us what to do, when the majority of us live out, New York, California, and we are paying for all this crap, really? We’re footing the bill.”
Colbert, again ignoring the constitutional function of the Supreme Court: “That’s the union. It’s supposed to be a representative democracy but it turns out to be minority rule right now.”
“Right, right,” Skykes agreed, then added, “But if we footing the bill, and like, California, if it were a country, it’d be like the fifth largest, fourth, fifth largest economy. So if I’m footing the bill, know your position. Know what I’m saying? Look, if I say let’s go out to dinner you don’t get to pick the restaurant. Just shut up and eat.”
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Comedian Wanda Sykes <a href="https://twitter.com/iamwandasykes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@iamwandasykes</a>: “The problem is that middle stuff. It is those states in the middle, that red stuff. Why do they tell get to tell us what to do, where the majority of us live out, New York, California, and we are paying for all this crap, really?&quot; <a href="https://t.co/vocoqUQPL3">pic.twitter.com/vocoqUQPL3</a>
&mdash; Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) <a href="https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1541732786205245442?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
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She really is just a stupid person. This decision is the opposite of red states telling blue states what to do. It’s red states being unable to tell blue states what to do and vice versa. <a href="https://t.co/67tLaQYunG">https://t.co/67tLaQYunG</a>
&mdash; Noam Blum (@neontaster) <a href="https://twitter.com/neontaster/status/1541752203739910145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
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These people are the perfect combination of elitist and ignorant. The decision puts the power back to the states, so she can live with her genderless, woke, narcissistic friends in CA and NY. Though they’ll get hungry real quick when they realize where food comes from… <a href="https://t.co/SHvaEBoqxO">https://t.co/SHvaEBoqxO</a>
&mdash; Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) <a href="https://twitter.com/RubinReport/status/1541754347733893120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
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At the Oscars earlier this year, Sykes decided she would alienate plenty of people in Florida by attacking them over the state’s Parental Rights in Education legislation, sniping, “Well, we’re going to have a great night tonight. And for you people in Florida, we’re going to have a gay night.”
Then she joined two other supposed comediennes Regina Hall and Amy Schumer to chant like defiant four-year-olds, “Gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay, gay.”
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They’re laughing at you, Florida, not with you.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DontSayGay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#DontSayGay</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oscars?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oscars</a> <a href="https://t.co/GGoQEISU30">pic.twitter.com/GGoQEISU30</a>
&mdash; Peter Schorsch (@PeterSchorschFL) <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterSchorschFL/status/1508236040716402688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 28, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Wanda Sykes Mocks Middle America After SCOTUS Overturns Roe: ‘Those States In The Middle. That Red Stuff.’ Then She Gets Ripped.

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Wanda Sykes

Wanda Sykes Brags About Her Hiring Bias: ‘If She’s A Black Woman, Girl You Got The Job’

Wanda Sykes Criticizes Dave Chappelle For ‘Hurtful And Damaging’ Trans Jokes

Wanda Sykes Mocks Middle America After SCOTUS Overturns Roe: ‘Those States In The Middle. That Red Stuff.’ Then She Gets Ripped.