UPDATE: Kevin Hart Steps down from The Oscars host position.
What follows is a post we were constructing just before the above tweets were sent.
When one of our writers shared with me the subject matter of the Kevin Hart tweet fiasco, I had mixed feelings about the issue, his Tweets using derogatory terms toward gay men. My first question to the writer was … how old are these questionable tweets? Then again, I was like … do I even need to ask the question how old they are? I mean, how old is Twitter?
Before I get to that answer, if you need to read our first post on this Hart controversy and see the tweets we are talking about, if you have not already, head over to our post Should Kevin Hart’s Homophobic Tweets Remove Him From Hosting?
The gay AND straight news outlets all quickly posted the Twitter Drama and it all got back to the Academy Awards. Apparently, The Oscars asked Kevin to apologize.
So he's not going to apologize … again for the Tweets. He's apparently done it already and he says he's a changed man and people around him know who he is and what he believes.
THE FIRST EVER tweet was sent via Twitter on March 21, 2006, then known as Twttr, by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
I'm still letting the fact sink in that Twitter started in 2006. Where was I in 2006? Well in relation to this subject, let me mention where I was in 2005. I remember one of the school related trips I attended was a Civil Rights Team training session with about a dozen of my high school students.
The Attorney General administers the Civil Rights Team Project, a school-based preventative program. The mission of the Civil Rights Team Project (CRTP) is to increase the safety of elementary, middle level, and high school students by reducing bias-motivated behaviors and harassment in our schools.
So there I was, sitting in a training session, sitting on the floor in a large room full of high school students from all over the state. The session coordinators introduce the group meeting by saying that they were and they were like we need to talk about not using the n word and the word fag in schools. I repeated that phrase in my head. And I quote "we need to talk about not using the n-word and the word fag in schools." I let them say some other things for a little bit, but then spoke up.
Why are we using the term the n-word, but outright saying the word fag if they both are bad word? I'm not saying one is worse than the other and that should not be a debate here nor ever. They are both bad words to be used, any time, especially in a school setting. Why aren't we saying, "we should stop using the f-word and the word n****r? But then again, if they are both hurtful words, we should be using the n-word and the f-word."
Kevin Hart would have been a high school senior in 1997, became a father in 2005, was 27 when Twttr started, and his first questionable tweet shared in our previous post was posted 12 days after his 30th birthday in 2009. Now, at the age of 39, he has decided to address his tweets in a non-apologetic way because they may be threatening his next big gig.
Hart has said he has apologized for his tweeted words and will not again. Poor example of adulting? Good example for others?
Is this the most serious we have seen the comedian? He has chosen this time in his career to stop being funny, to stop taking a crappy situation and turning it into something else, chosen to not self-deprecate as so many do to relieve tension or cause a laugh.
When our writer came to me with this information and told me the years the tweets popped up on Twitter, my follow-up question was if he address them in the past for being wrong or in poor taste? If there was a paper trail, a flight pattern of tweets, it should be out there.
I did find a response of his to one of his gay jokes.
"One of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay. That's a fear," Hart confesses. "Keep in mind, I'm not homophobic. […] Be happy. Do what you want to do."
But Hart said that what makes his account different is that he presents it in a way that sheds light on how much of his concern would stem from the insecurities he would feel as a father.
"It's about my fear. I'm thinking about what I did as a dad—did I do something wrong—and if I did, what was it? Not that I'm not gonna love my son or think about him any differently," Hart explained.
"The funny thing within that joke is, it's me getting mad at my son because of my own insecurities—I panicked. It has nothing to do with him; it's about me. That's the difference between bringing a joke across that's well thought out and saying something just to ruffle feathers," Hart explained.
It seems that a lot of the anxiety about gay sons and their fathers stems from the idea that a man's sexuality is a commentary on what kind of father he had in his life. Kudos to Hart for trying to articulate that perspective. – thegrapevine.theroot.com
In a Reddit post 4 years ago, he responded:
And here is where the "I QUIT" tweets came in.
Question time.
Do you think Kevin Hart should have quit?
Should he just have apologized before it lead to his quitting?
Would anyone have accepted his apology if he made it?
Once a homophone always a homophone?
How much has changed from 2010 to now. Has he?
Should The Academy Awards have cut him loose as soon as the Tweets resurfaced?
Kevin who?
What are your thoughts Instincters?
Yes. People can grow and
Yes. People can grow and mature. Feels like it was the thing to do to get work.he stopped when society found it wrong finally. Homophobia is still alive. Wrong is wrong. Prove your love donate and work at a gay charity.