Today, Tracy Morgan said he was sorry for telling an audience in Nashville, TN, that if his son were gay, he would "pull out a knife and stab him." According to the article in Boston.com, a Facebook account posted by an audience member from the TN performance said Morgan's stand-up routine was full of homophobic references. So here I sit on the Friday evening before Boston's Pride Parade, and I'm left wondering have I lost my sense of humor? Am I so politically correct I can't laugh off edgy jokes? I suppose we all have opinions on this and I'm not here to tell people what they should think or how they should feel, but the story leaves me cold. It also disappoints me because lately the African American community in particular seems so homophobic. Recently Joakim Noah (Chicago Bulls) and Kobe Bryant (LA Lakers) were fined for making homophobic slurs and rapper 50 Cent seems to be making a career of maligning the gay community encouraging gay youth to commit suicide... among other graphic comments.
The silver lining to this story is that there was a measured response on social media platforms like facebook and twitter and main stream media like my local paper, The Boston Globe, picked up and ran the story. A decade ago, I don't think anyone would have blinked and without sites like facebook or twitter the story would have never been told. However, my response to Tracy Morgan is "Apology not accepted."
6 comments:
I feel the same way. Im not going to accept an apology, soley because he now doesnt want bad press. Its not ok to say these things and then simply be allowed to say im sorry. Sure, NBA stars are fined, but where does that money go to? Maybe instead of fining them, they should go to some tolerance training.
I don't you've lost any sense of humor. Morgan didn't say anything funny, and I doubt he was aiming for humor.
Sad indeed! I'm a fan of Tracy and I love him on SNL and 30 Rock! But this is just another insecure fool making snarls at the gay community - so what makes him so special?
Homophobia, sometimes really virulent homophobia, sadly is not a recent development in the black community. It's been there all along but is perhaps becoming more publicly expressed now that the myth "there are no black men who are gay" has been exposed for the fraud it is.
I didn't know Morgan's work before this incident and have no desire to become familiar with it now. Public figures need to realize that their influence is powerful; when he advocates violence and murder against gays by saying he'd kill his own son should the boy be gay, he places the lives of thousands of gay teens in danger.
If you told a joke about the Klan stabbing a black men and Tracy Morgan laughed, then you should consider that you might be losing your sense of humour.
I don't accept his apology, either. Yes, comedians push buttons. And I can laugh at myself as a gay man. What he said was not funny. It revealed real hatred of gays. I'm sick of apologies from comedians, actors, politicians, or others in the public eye who make truly offensive remarks, and when caught, make excuses. Apologize, but do it without excuse. And demonstrate that you know what you did was wrong.
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