BD Wong.
Photo: Getty Images
BD Wong says he’s “very sorry for the hurt I’ve caused” with a since-deleted “racist comment” he made on Instagram under a video of Black content creator Mike Holston petting a binturong. “Name this animal … wrong answers only 🤣,” Holston captioned the November 30 post. Wong replied, “It appears to be a Black man.” The actor then deleted his “very bad joke” as “Damage Control,” he said in a December 2 Threads post that acknowledged the comment was still causing hurt and disappointment as it circulated online. “I’m really sorry about the hurt part. Super dumb, but I tried to follow the ‘Wrong Answers Only’ prompt w/ the wrongest answer,” Wong wrote. “This succeeded only in that it was Super Wrong. I know nobody gets a free pass. I’m sorry if this #wtfbd moment tarnished any respect you may’ve had for me. & thanks if you advocate for an internet that’s safe for everybody.”
In a follow-up post, the Jurassic Park and Law and Order: SVU star suggested that his initial statement had missed the mark, clarifying that he recognizes and accepts responsibility for “how terrible” his “racist comment” was. “It’s also wrong to try to ‘explain’ anything, & I think that causes a further breaking down in folks’ trust,” Wong wrote. “Let me please spend the energy on how wrong I know it is to exploit a despicable, racist trope in the supposed spirit of humor; I do know better, but again no excuses. Very sorry for the hurt I’ve caused & for taking lightly something so deeply injurious.”
Earlier this year, Wong was an outspoken critic of the Broadway show Maybe Happy Ending’s choice to cast a white actor in a part previously played by Darren Criss, writing that “advocating for one’s own representation is stultifyingly self-debasing.” The actor previously reflected in his 2022 MLK Commemorative Address at Elon University that when he was growing up during the civil-rights movement in the 1960s, he felt “somehow outside of the discussion” as someone who was not white or Black. “As my life continued, I feel like that perspective grows and changes and shifts,” he said, “and I am absolutely a participant in all of the many growing and evermore complicated discussions about civil rights, racism, and the lack of equality in many different areas.” Sounds like he didn’t expect his own Instagram activity would be at the center of these discussions.
