Law & Order actor BD Wong has apologized for making a “racist” comment online.
Wong, whose roles include hundreds of episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Mr. Robot and Jurassic Park, apologized on his Threads account on December 2 for what he described as a “racist comment.”
On his account, @wongbd, he wrote: “I want to elaborate re a racist comment I posted, to clarify that I recognize & accept the responsibility for how terrible it is.”
Wong said it was “also wrong to try to ‘explain’ anything, & I think that causes a further breaking down in folks’ trust. Let me please spend the energy on how wrong I know it is to exploit a despicable, racist trope in the supposed spirit of humor; I do know better, but again no excuses.”
He added: “Very sorry for the hurt I’ve caused & for taking lightly something so deeply injurious.”
Wong’s apology appears to stem from a reply he made to a popular Threads account which, though deleted by Wong himself, has been screenshotted by multiple others.
It shows popular nature-based account @therealtarzann, with the account owner Mike Holston, who is Black, posing with an unusual animal and asking: “Name this animal…wrong answers only.”
Wong then allegedly replied: “It appears to be a Black man.”
Backlash was swift, with one user writing: “Historically, Black people have been dehumanized & compared to animals, apes, monkeys to justify slavery, segregation, & ongoing violence; joking that a Black man is ‘the animal’ continues to that history. Jokes are supposed to be funny, there’s nothing funny about dehumanizing Black people.”
“It was more than a bad joke, it was racist. Call it that and name your racism if you want to be genuine in your apology,” another said.
Before that apology, Wong had apologized for what he called making a “very bad joke,” and deleting it “for damage control.”
“But it’s out there & continues to hurt & disappoint & I’m really sorry about the hurt part,” the actor added.
He said he had tried to “follow the ‘Wrong Answers Only’ prompt” by replying with “the wrongest answer,” and apologized if it had “tarnished any respect you may’ve had for me.”
At that, some users had accused him of it being “not an apology—it’s more of an explanation.”
“You made a very racist joke. If it had just been “bad,” you wouldn’t have immediately tried to delete it. You deleted it because of the backlash you KNEW was coming and not because of the hurt you caused,” another said, to which Wong replied that he took it down “so as to not unnecessarily perpetuate it, not just for myself but for all whom it would offend.”
Others supported Wong, saying that he made “mistakes,” with one posting it takes “a good person to admit when they’re wrong.”
Newsweek has contacted BD Wong and @therealtarzann for comment on this story.
