This is the subconscious hurdle of what being a double minority sometimes look like: practicing the art of compassion and compromise even when one of your communities causes pain to the other. In one tweet, Hart described a photo of actor Damien Dante Wayans as looking “like a gay billboard for AIDS.” In Hart’s 2010 standup film, Seriously Funny, the comedian said, “As a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will.” In a 2011 tweet, Hart suggested he would tell his son, “stop that’s gay,” if he caught him playing with a dollhouse and would respond by breaking the toy over the child’s head. And I was so glad that a person of color got a shot at emceeing Hollywood’s biggest night, given the diversity of this year’s potential nominations - I cringed at the thought of a white comedian making flat jokes about films like Black Panther, BlackKklansman, and If Beale Street Could Talk.īut as a gay man, I was painfully aware of Hart’s history of homophobic jokes. I appreciate Hart’s ambition and success as a black creative within an industry that has yet to fully embrace us. It’s why, when superstar Kevin Hart announced that he was going to host the 2019 Academy Awards, I had mixed feelings. It’s not easy for me as a black person to dismiss another black man’s achievements.
