Kevin Hart No Longer Hosting Oscars

Kevin Hart is no longer hosting the Oscars after outrage about his homophobic tweets. In the tweets from 2009 to 2011, Hart used derogatory and homophobic language and in one tweet stated if his son tried to play with a doll he would break it over his head because “that’s gay.” The outrage increased after Hart said in an Instagram post the Academy was pressuring him to apologize and he stated he refused as “he had already ‘addressed this several times’ and that he had ‘moved on.’” Social media was outraged by these comments with many people condemning Hart’s tweets and the choice of him to host the award show.

I think the Oscars made the right decision to pressure Hart to step down, but I also wonder why they even asked him in the first place since many articles have pointed out that these tweets are reflective of homophobic jokes that he has told for years. I also think Hart’s tweets are reflective of how ingrained homophobia and heteropatriarchy are in society. This type of rhetoric is harmful as the LGBT community is already symbolically annihilated from the media and to have someone with these views have such a prominent platform does damage and does not take into account the concerns of the LGBT community. While I think the Oscars were right to make Hart step down, one has to wonder why they even asked in the first place given his history of making these types of comments. The fact he was asked shows how long we have to go.