They used to say, “You can’t take back your words.” Now, the saying is, “You can’t take back your tweets.” It’s true; the internet is forever. Kevin Hart learned that the hard way, and as a result, Ellen DeGeneres and other stars are receiving a think layer of backlash.
The comedian who was tapped to host the 91st Academy Awards was asked to apologize or step down from the position when a bucketload of homophobic tweets and a past comedy skit were dug up from his page, where he hadn’t deleted them even after they had come up in the past.
“Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ”stop that’s gay”,” Hart tweeted on January 11, 2011. This is just one of many resurfacing tweets, along with an especially concerning stand up a routine sketch, in which Hart says that “as a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will,” and that, “one of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay.” These comments, despite the fact that they were posted before he was a household legend, sparked so much backlash that within days, he was booted from the job after refusing to apologize for something he felt was so long ago it didn’t matter anymore.
Since Hart posted multiple lengthy and contradictory apologies mixed in with I-won’t-ever-apologize statements on different social media platforms, multiple stars have spoken out, mostly against Hart. “Homophobia is not positivity,” Jamie Lee Curtis tweeted in response to Hart saying he spreads positivity. Yet others have jumped to his defense, much to the dismay of their fans and the LGBTQ+ community.
One such is Ellen, who invited the comedian onto her January 4th The Ellen Show and encouraged him to reconsider the offer from the Academy to still be the host as well as offering him time to apologize in yet another manner. The general consensus from the public? Ellen is in no way shape or form to apologize on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. With article titles like, “Who Died and Made Ellen DeGeneres the Gay Pope?” it’s infinitely clear that while Ellen may have forgiven Hart, not everyone has.
His words have imprinted people, and no amount of apologies will turn those people into any less of haters. Haters who do have a reason to hate. At the end of the day, Kevin Hart made a mistake. A really large mistake that offended a lot of people. It was a long time ago, but does that excuse the actions? Does the fact that Donald Trump made those Access tapes a long time ago as well excuse his actions? No. So should that apply to Hart?
Maya Henry, 2024- World News/ Politics Writer
Photo Credit: Hollywood Reporter
A reverberation of GALA student voices 