If Kevin Hart is looking for an answer to his “what just happened here?” moment involving the Oscars, here’s a suggestion: Give Nate Parker a call.
Parker, you might recall, co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the critically acclaimed “Birth of a Nation,” the cinematic retelling of Nat Turner’s 1831 brutal slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia. Before that, Parker starred in a number of other movies such as “Red Tails” and “The Great Debaters.” However, he didn’t achieve real notoriety until just before the release of “Birth of a Nation” in the fall of 2016.
Parker, too, was targeted by the same increasingly toxic left-leaning media that put Hart in its crosshairs last week.
Hart gave a sort-of apology in a 2015 Rolling Stone article, saying, “I wouldn’t tell that joke today, because when I said it, the times weren’t as sensitive as they are now.” He talked about how his jokes arose from his own insecurities.
Last week, he wrapped his regrets in a bow of utter contrition, tweeting an apology to the LGBTQ community for “insensitive words from my past.” He said he was sorry that he hurt people, acknowledged that he was still “evolving,” and said his goal is to “bring people together not tear us apart.” Still, the unsatisfied mobs remain, now miffed that it required arm twisting — from them — for yet another apology that apparently still is not sufficient.
Hollywood’s staunch media allies snatched up torches, nails, crosses and pitchforks and came for Hart, and they still haven’t stopped coming for him even after he bowed out.
This is what crazy looks like, and in 2016 Parker saw it up close and personal.
While a student at Penn State, Parker, now 39 but then a college sophomore, and another student, wrestling teammate Jean Celestin, were accused of raping a female student in 1999. Parker was cleared of all charges in 2001. Celestin was sentenced to six months in prison but his charges were overturned.
Free and clear, right? Nope.
More than a decade later, in 2012, the same year Parker starred in “Red Tails,” the movie about the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II, their accuser, who had twice before attempted suicide, succeeded in taking her life, overdosing on sleeping pills while a patient in a rehab facility.
The story raised few eyebrows. At the time, it was never more than a blip on a few radars.
But four years later, all this changed in the months leading up to the release of “Birth of a Nation.” Fifteen years after he was cleared, Variety revisited the news of the four-year-old suicide, and the media came running for Parker after the fact, just like they did for Hart.
Across the Internet, in newspapers and on television, it was demanded of Parker that he apologize for something that the courts had absolved him of years prior. And when he told Anderson Cooper this truth on “60 Minutes,” it only served to make things worse.
“I was vindicated. I was proven innocent, and I feel terrible that this woman isn’t here,” Parker said. “Her family had to deal with that, but as I sit here, an apology is, no.”
Who could blame him? What person in their right mind, in the public eye or out of it, apologizes for something that the courts say they did not do? More specifically, what African-American man, trying to build a brand for himself in a space as racist as Hollywood, thinks it’s a good decision to let the media even remotely attach guilt to his name 15 years after it’s been confirmed that there is none?
Just how long is the statute of limitations for guilt in the eye of the public? And who gets to decide when the punishment is sufficient?
Parker stood his ground and said enough is enough.
Hart, to a lesser degree, did the same.
Both should be commended.
John N. Mitchell has worked as a journalist for more than a quarter century. He can be reached at jmitchell@phillytrib.com and Tweet at @freejohnmitchel.
https://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/mitchell-kevin-hart-can-learn-a-thing-or-two-from/article
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