Harry Lennix’s career spans nearly three decades, but he is currently most known for his role on NBC’s hit series The Blacklist. For part one of his EBONY feature, the actor speaks about women deserving equal pay and treatment, and how it correlates on some level to how Blacks are treated in society.

“I don’t want to be controversial about it, but none of this is new,” Lennix responded when asked about the gender pay gap and the treatment of women on set, which sparked last year’s Me Too moment, the exposure of sexual misconduct by several Hollywood executives. To solve this issue, the Chicagoan asserted that society should abide by Jesus’ Golden Rule to treat others how you would want to be treated.

The tenet shouldn’t  be followed only by men according to Lennix, who said some women cover for and defend culprits. He pointed to the election of President Donald Trump in 2016, for whom a reported 53 percent of White women voted, as an example of how both genders can do better for each other.

Reversing the negatives taught by society happens at home first. “It’s the same thing with Black people. We have to do a lot of this fixing of ourselves, for ourselves and to ourselves,” Lennix said. “In addition . . .  society has to be willing, and has to determine and demand that everybody is treated equally. It’s the easiest thing in the world. What is hard about paying a woman the same amount for the same work that a man would do?”

Watch the entire interview in the video above.