LGBTQ Activists Are Say Kevin Hart Stepping Down Was Missed Opportunity

LGBTQ Activists Are Say Kevin Hart Stepping Down Was Missed Opportunity

Kate Ellis, an LGBTQ activist, says Kevin Hart should not have stepped down but used the Oscars Platform as an opportunity to advocate for the LGBTQ community.

Since Kevin Hart announced that he was excited to be hosting the Academy Awards last Tuesday a lot has happened. Shortly after it was announced that Kevin would be hosting the Oscars, a story broke about old tweets Kevin made in which he stated that he hopes his son does not turn out gay. Keep in mind that Kevin Hart basically launched his career with jokes that centered on an anti-gay sentiment. He has since experienced a very successful career despite those remarks; therefore, one has to ponder what is the real motivation behind bringing up those tweets now.

I am not a fan of some of the things that Kevin has done is his representation of Black men; however, I don’t like the way that this is playing out. The backlash behind those old tweets was so strong that Kevin stepped down from the opportunity to host the awards show. He also apologized, something I believed was forced. One thing that I have learned is that any apology that has to be forced is not genuine. Sometimes you have to simply stick with your guns and deal with the consequences.

What Kevin has to understand is that once a decision to break him is made, there is nothing that he can do to stop it if he plans to experience his success in the mainstream. What I don’t like it the LGBTQ’s response to him stepping down and apologizing. Those who represent the LGBTQ community say that Kevin’s apology is a good start to making amends, they believe that he should not have stepped down but he should have used that platform as a way to advocate for the LGBTQ community.

I have said on more than one occasion that the thing that bothers me the most about the LGBTQ community is their proclivity to bully people who don’t agree with them. They seem to forget that the same liberties that provide the space for them to live their lives the way that they see fit also provides the freedom for others to disagree with them.

What I love about this situation is those who are speaking unapologetically concerning their refusal to support this type of behavior and reactive outrage by the LGBTQ community. I have included an excerpt by Dr. Alexander Hamilton addressing the issue in depth. I have also included a video message I streamed a couple of days ago. My stand is that the Black community cannot afford to be manipulated and bullied into standing for others before we stand for ourselves. We cannot acquiesce to forced compliance on things we do not agree with. ~ Rick Wallace, Ph.D., Psy.D.

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ON THE RUSE OF FORCED APOLOGIES

There are a good number of people in our society who want to make your life a democracy that depends on their votes. Veto their efforts. My life is an autocracy for which no other human being gets a vote. Forced extraction of apologies in this society is getting to be outright insane. Apologies have become the narcissistic props of the insecure who demand as a prerequisite a forced worship at the altar of their vanity.

Jimmy Kimmel hosted one of the most sexist and misogynistic shows of all time: “The Man Show” on Comedy Central. The jokes routinely done on this show were horribly demeaning to women, but he gets to host the Oscars twice with no forced contrition and somehow, we are to believe that Kevin Hart must be brought to the knees of a community that has routinely chosen their race over their sexuality in matters of national importance. Just ask black lesbian activists in California who refused to join the white-dominated gay rights movement there because many white gays supported the anti-affirmative action ballot measure in California (Proposition 209), which eradicated racial diversity in California public universities. Never forget that white gay people can be just as racist as white southerners waving rebel flags. The oxymoronic nature of human beings is without bound. Nevertheless, there has been no societal reexamination of Jimmy Kimmel and The Man Show on par with what Kevin Hart will now face for the rest of his life.

On another note, one great thing about the rise of the internet is the eradication of the monopoly a few institutions have on what America or the world gets to deem as worthy of consuming and the power some have to regulate what is acceptable speech in the public square. The internet allows people to leapfrog gatekeepers and peddle their product or service directly to the public. I long to see the day where organizations like the Academy of Motion Pictures, which dole out annual awards, will no longer have such mass influence over this society. We need independent arbiters of influence that can’t shut people down who I or others happen to disagree with. Art must be insulated from the forced extraction of apologies to be consumed in its rawest and purest form. Those who routinely demand apologies from others should be siloed in soundproofed bubbles to protect their supersensitive feelings and fragile psyches from the rigorous exchange of ideas that permeate the collective tapestry of our brutal reality.

My love affair with free speech and free expression transcends the Constitutional ideals that many Americans claim to love but routinely despise. The only people I ever want to run out of a room are people who want to run other people out of a room. Never forget, hate speech is Constitutionally protected speech too and whereas there are people I vigorously disagree with on a multivariate of issues, I believe their ideas are as worthy as mine of being protected in the public square. This is what separates America from other nations. Otherwise, we descend to a land of despots and dictators with no accountability thereof. Time to take it up a notch.

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To illustrate my contentions, please read and reread the next 421 words very carefully (3 paragraphs). I am pro-gay rights. I am pro-gay marriage. I believe in equality across race, gender and sexuality lines. However, I believe NBC should cancel Ellen DeGeneres television show simply because she is a lesbian woman. Homophobic? No. But, I thought you said you are pro-gay rights? I am. Then, how can you say you feel her show should be canceled on account of her sexuality?

Remember, I stated earlier that the only people I ever want to run out of a room are people who want to run other people out of a room. Ellen DeGeneres, with support from hip-hop artist Pharrell, disinvited gospel artist Kim Burrell from her show on account of Burrell’s religious beliefs that DeGeneres feels are homophobic. DeGeneres’ reasons that you should not give platforms to people she deems homophobic or restated, the only people who get to speak on her platform are people who agree with her on all matters of sexuality. Fine. Then if a majority of NBC’s board were comprised of conservative individuals who disagree with DeGeneres’ sexuality, then by DeGeneres’ own logic, they should ban her from their network – and every other network that feels the same should follow suit.

What if every media outlet was run by conservative evangelicals who colluded to keep Ellen DeGeneres off the air on account of her sexuality? What if every record company refused to do business with Pharrell because of the sexism and misogyny in many of his rap songs and videos? Then each of these groups would be guilty of doing the same thing to DeGeneres and Pharrell that they did to Burrell. This is insanity and that is not a world I want to live, which brings me to this point: many of the oppressed claim they want freedom. Don’t believe them. They simply want to trade places with their oppressors. How is DeGeneres denying Burrell on her show on account of Burrell’s beliefs any different from networks for years refusing to feature gay relationships on their shows? It’s not. It’s all discrimination on account of belief. DeGeneres has traded places with her oppressors in denying those who disagree with her a space in her midst to see the world differently. Perhaps DeGeneres should take a page out of CNN host Don Lemon, a gay black man, who routinely has conservative people on his program who are totally opposed to gay rights. A conservative evangelical ran CNN board would have no such basis to rid the airwaves of Lemon in my little hypothetical above.

Like Hart initially, Burrell refused to apologize. More recently, comic Tina Fey criticized what she deemed a “culture of demanding apologies” and she vowed never to apologize for any joke people found offensive. I commend her for this stance. Joan Rivers took a similar stance. In my estimation, comics who apologize for jokes forfeit the right to be called comics and are traitors to their craft. I have a general policy of non-apology. Contrary to what some believe, the ideas I express in the public square are not off the cuff. These are matters I have thought long and hard about. As articulated in the “The Four Agreements,” I am “impeccable with my language.” I say what I mean and I mean what I say or as that great MAGA hat donner Kanye West once posited, I “never fix my lips like collagen and say something I’m gone end up apologizing for’. In short, I never qualified for the apology Olympics and those who wait on apologies from me would have better odds betting their life savings on the next lotto drawing.

Outrage culture has taken our society by a storm. Nowadays, everyone is outraged about everything. The easily offended and hyper-insulated have managed to get a stranglehold on our society and are hellbent on reducing the public square to their narrow set of norms and values. We should water the gardens on our battlefield of ideas with their tears. Read that out loud…twice. Most in our society prefer pretty lies over ugly truths and in such a climate, freethinkers have little cover. I will not participate in the madness of forced apology extraction. I said it previously and it bears repeating again: Apologies have become the narcissistic props of the insecure who demand as a prerequisite a forced worship at the altar of their vanity. I will no longer navigate around the insecurities and hurt feelings of human beings nor will I participate in the ruse of forced apology extractions. As Tina Fey put it, “I’m opting out of that.” ~ Dr. Alexander Hamilton