Following the detailed reporting around the brutal (and seemingly targeted) hate crime against Jussie Smollett, many celebrities posted messages of support and love to Jussie. A member of their acting community had been targeted in a racist and homophobic hate crime. It was awful, and most celebrities were simply offering support and well-wishes to Jussie with no real agenda. Enter Kevin Hart, who stepped down from hosting the Oscars in December because social media users brought up his old tweets and old jokes from his act. The “jokes” and tweets showed Kevin’s strain of homophobia, stuff about how he would beat up his son if he was gay, etc. Hart posted the same kind of “sending prayers to Jussie” message as everybody else. And he got dragged for it.
Let me just say right here… I think Hart still deserved to be dragged. People were dragging him before he even posted the first message, because it’s about more than Kevin Hart. It’s about the culture of homophobia, and how even though our society becomes more and more LGBTQ+ friendly with each passing year, there are still so many hate crimes against that marginalized community, not to mention the rise in racist hate crimes too. Simply saying “this is why those jokes were never funny, Kevin Hart” isn’t so much “dragging” as it is an attempt to educate and increase awareness about the issues. But… Kevin Hart made it all about him, because of course. He “responded to the backlash” by posting this (I’m including Ira Madison’s tweet because it led to Kevin’s response:
your funniest joke congrats https://t.co/N3JqxaSJMl
— Ira (@ira) January 30, 2019
I stand with a man in his time of hurt and need by giving him heart felt support and u take the time to harp on my 10yr past that I have apologized about and moved on from by being a better person. Do you want change? If so I am an example of what u want people to do…CHANGE! https://t.co/Ybbo8OYKTt
— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) January 30, 2019
It’s like talking to a wall sometimes with Kevin Hart, right? The Oscar debacle showed me that – he can’t see past his own nose. He can’t get out of his own way. It could have been a moment for him to acknowledge that he was truly wrong in the past, to have a moment of self-awareness and acknowledge that publicly. “I’m sorry for contributing – however small, however large – to the toxicity of homophobia.” That’s all it would have taken. But I guess that’s too much.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Sometimes silence is golden Kevin. Your statement of support was good, and then it was time to take your knocks. People are scared and angry. Not the time to make it about you.
He was reluctant to change just a month ago…
I don’t understand why a) He didn’t apologize when all this hit the fan. The public would have probably moved on and he would still be hosting the Oscars
b) He just stops talking and let this die down
It is he likes being the centre of the storm(and attention) Doesn’t he have a publicist or agent to advise him?
The thing about cancel culture is there is no incentive to change. You can’t cancel a human being, first. Second, you can’t beat a person down for a bad take, or mistake forever and not expect to brew more hostility or make them feel justified in that view.
If he’s sorry and actively changes then all clear. If hes homophobic again after all this then yeah. He’s done. He was supporting a victim of a hate crime and doing absolutely nothing wrong. In fact he was showing change through action and someone decided to drag him instead of focusing on the real issue which is a man was beaten, dragged with a rope and had bleach thrown on him kn a public street for the crime of being black and playing a gay character. This IS NOT about Kevin heart, who was actually supporting the victim.
I’ve been thinking about this and I think I’ve hit on why Kevin Hart’s response has failed to placate any of his critics (myself included). My theory is that he actually for real believes homosexuality is a sin and that’s why be hasn’t actually literally said he was wrong, you know? He’s made some comments in the past that struck me as Christian in nature, and while many many Christians are not homophobia there’s a distressingly large segment of the church that still is. I recognized his entire attitude as being similar to my parents, it just took me a while to put it together. That’s why I think it’s dismissive to label “homophobia is always bad and never funny” as ‘call out culture at work’.
Allies that expect to be patted on the back for doing good aren’t really allies.
Hey, what do you know, he learned nothing, got defensive, and made it about himself again. Anyone shocked?
Not in the least.
It’s simple. Just ONCE I would love to see him admit his awful jokes contributed to an atmosphere of hate. That atmosphere creates conditions that result in attacks such as the one Jussie suffered.
Not at all
there was a great segment on NPR last week about saying sorry. One of the many excellent points was that if you’re truly sorry and have truly changed, you don’t mind repeating your apology (KEVIN)…. another great point was that the person/people you’re apologizing to are NOT required to forgive you. Forgiveness is a gift.
This post nailed it.
His jokes were (are?) inappropriate, but I don’t think that means it’s impossible for him to feel genuine compassion for someone who was attacked in this way. The nature of the crime does hit levels of hate that are likely shocking even to people who have been prejudiced but wouldn’t necessarily enact physical violence because of it. There are different levels of how people act out their prejudices and these MAGA hat wearing people who carry around bleach (yikes) are probably shocking even to people who make jokes that are inappropriate. The people who are in support of women’s campaigns now don’t want their support of the Polanski petition from the past to be held against them now, so I guess I wouldn’t see how this would be any different from that. Is it necessary for him to be defensive? I would also say no. But given the horrific nature of the crime against Smollet, I do think it’s possible that Hart may have been genuinely shocked by what happened to him. Given that they’re both African-American, I don’t think it’s contradictory that Hart would find some point of commonality with the victim.
Also, he was wrong to make the jokes but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I think he’d go out and beat someone up like that himself. Now, if Mark Wahlberg went out and beat someone up in a MAGA hat, I wouldn’t be shocked even if he’s never made inappropriate jokes on Twitter. He does have a past of physical violence against a minority that if done again today wouldn’t surprise me.
He is completely obtuse. He made “jokes” about beating his son for being gay and is then shocked when people question his sincerity when he tweets support for an actor seemingly targeted and attacked for being gay. Of course this would come off as a bit hypocritical.
He was right to offer up support and prayers, but he should have let it be and taken it on the chin when people called him out. It is what it is, dude. You can’t get all offensive about what YOU DID.
He’s right! White women got away with it