Law & Order: SVU star BD Wong issued an apology after posting a racist joke on Instagram.
Wong, 65, commented a video shared by the content creator Mike Holston Monday, Dec. 1, in which Holston, who is Black, was seen petting a pet binturong on the shoulder. “Name that animal… just wrong answers 🤣,” Holston captioned the post, to which Wong responded in a since-deleted comment: “Looks like he’s a black man.”
The Mulan i Jurassic World The actor later deleted the comment and said threads to apologize for his ill-conceived joke.
“I made a really bad joke. As most people in hot water do, I deleted it for damage control,” he wrote on Monday. “But it’s out there and it’s still going to hurt and disappoint and I’m sorry for the hurt part. Very silly, but I tried to follow the ‘Wrong Answers Only’ message with the most wrong answer. That only succeeded because it was Super Wrong.”
Wong continued: “I know no one gets a free pass. I’m sorry if this #wtfbd moment has tarnished any respect you had for me. (And) thank you for standing up for a safe internet for everyone.”
In a posting back threadsWong wrote: “I want to elaborate on: A racist comment I posted, to clarify that I recognize and accept responsibility for how terrible it is.”
“It’s also wrong to try to ‘explain’ anything, and I think that causes a further breakdown in people’s trust,” he continued. “Please allow me to expend energy on what I know is the evil of exploiting a despicable, racist trope in the supposed spirit of humor – I know better, but again I have no excuses. I am very sorry for the hurt I have caused and for taking something so deeply hurtful so lightly.”
Wong is best known for playing psychiatrist Special Agent George Huang Law & Order: SVUjoining the cast in season 2 and appearing on the long-running NBC procedural drama through season 12. He later made guest appearances in episodes during seasons 13 through 17.
Wong reprized his role as Huang in the SUV season 27 premiere that aired in September.
In August, Wong, who is of Chinese descent, called the casting of a non-Asian actor, Andrew Barth Feldmanas one of the main roles in the Broadway musical Maybe a happy endingreplacing Darren Crisswho is of Filipino descent.
“The Asian community, especially the actors, feel rather betrayed by the news,” he wrote in an essay shared on Instagram.
“Defending one’s representation is stupid self-humiliation. No, we don’t want to ‘fire someone’. We need to express, however, how painful it is to be overlooked, but how we’ve gotten used to it. How incomprehensibly rare ‘Asian shows’ are,” he said.
“The MHE team does what they feel they have to do. Producing a Broadway musical is abnormal. I feel for them. However, this decision is still taken as a slap in the face to both the Asian acting community and Asian audiences,” he continued. “Our long history of exclusion is real.”