What’s up?
It’s Sussan Mourad here with Clevver News and The Flash actor Hartley Sawyer has been
fired from the show after many of his racist, misogynistic, and homophobic tweets recently
resurfaced.
You may have heard of Hartley Sawyer from his role as Ralph Dibny on The CW series The
Flash, or for his role as Kyle Abbott on The Young and The Restless, or maybe you’re
just one of his hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
But the Hollywood Reporter just revealed that Hartley has been fired from The Flash after
a number of his racist, homophobic, and sexist tweets from around 6 to 9 years ago resurfaced.
Hartley has since deleted his Twitter account, but screenshots of the extremely offensive
tweets have been circulating online.
Skai Jackson actually took to Twitter to share the screenshots of his old tweets writing
quote, “Hartley Sawyer, you have been exposed…”
Everything Hartley said is extremely offensive and you can have a look at the screenshots
for yourself if you’re interested, but here are a few.
In 2014 he said quote, “Out at dinner and I just exposed myself as a racist AGAIN.”
Asset: screenshot in this tweet
And “The only thing stopping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that
Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.”
Another one from 2013 said: 'Super Bowl!
America!
80% of the prison population is African-American!'
And there were a bunch of other disgusting tweets joking about sexual assault and using
homophobic slurs.
It’s unclear exactly how the old tweets were uncovered, but they were more than enough
to get Hartley fired from The Flash.
Since the tweets have resurfaced and gone viral over the past few days, Hartley took
to his Instagram page to issue an apology.
In his lengthy post he said quote, “I’m not here to make excuses.
Regardless of the intention, my words matter and they carry profound consequences.
And mine can and have caused pain and embarrassment, along with feelings I can only imagine, to
supporters and fans, my cast mates, the crew, my colleagues and friends.
I owe them all an apology.
And I owe each of you an apology.
Thank you for holding me accountable.”
Hartley continued on, saying quote, “This was not acceptable behavior.
These were words I threw out at the time with no thought or recognition of the harm my words
could do, and now have done today.
I am incredibly sorry, ashamed and disappointed in myself for my ignorance back then.
I want to be very clear: this is not reflective of what I think or who I am now.”
And this week, The Flash showrunner, Eric Wallace, also took to social to share his
stance on the entire situation.
He wrote quote, “This morning, many of you learned that Hartley Sawyer will not be returning
for Season Seven of The Flash.
Concerning his social media tweets, they broke my heart and made me mad as hell.
And they’re indicative of the larger problem in our country.
Because at present, our country still accepts and protects the continual harassment, terrorizing,
and brutalizing of Black and Brown people, which is far too often fatal.”
Eric continued on and shared that he is committed to bringing permanent change to The Flash
by hiring more Black and Brown writers, directors, actors, and producers of all genders.
And Grant Gustin, who plays the main character Barry Allen AKA The Flash, reposted Eric’s
statement on Monday.
Along with Eric’s statement, Grant wrote quote, “I don’t have much to add because
Eric’s thoughts are stated so eloquently and powerfully.
I will say I was shocked, saddened and angry when I saw the tweets.
Words matter.”
And Candice Patton, who plays Iris West on The Flash, has long been outspoken about the
issues of diversity in Hollywood.
“You have to have producers who understand the Black experience in Hollywood.
In every department you have to have diversity so that these actors and these storylines
are protected.”
And all of this has led to many fans tweeting that they want to see more diversity on The
CW like this person who said quote, “@thecw if you're hiring Black Actresses & Actors
bc you want to show DIVERSITY to Ppl than do it for real no fakery just to prove a point
meaning the actors should have the same access as White actors whether it's Lead or guest
of the just like for caucasian Ppl.”
And this fan replied to The Flash showrunner’s tweet saying quote, “next, please hire some
black female writers and give Iris the storylines she deserves”
And another person replied to Eric’s tweet saying quote, “i really hope you do better
by @candicepatton next season.
she’s been speaking about these issues for years with little to no support from tptb.”
But others didn’t seem to understand the seriousness of Hartley’s old tweets and
spent time asking why he was fired for tweets that were years old.
And Eric Wallace made it clear that The Flash and The CW don’t stand for racism or sexism
of any kind, regardless of when the tweets were shared.
And here at Clevver we want to make it clear that we stand with our black co-workers, friends,
viewers and everyone else impacted in this fight for change.
And we will continue to cover these stories and have these conversations because this
is only just the beginning.
We’ve linked resources down in the description below with ways to get involved.
And please take a moment and click right over here to watch this video to know why this
issue is so important to us here at Clevver.
And feel free to keep the conversation going down in the comments below and share your
thoughts about Hartley Sawyer and The Flash.
I’m your host, Sussan Mourad, bye guys!