Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the most problematic of them all? | Source: (i) Kathy Hutchins/Shutterstock.com, (ii) REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo. Image edited by CCN.com
You might not recognize the name, Hartley Sawyer, and that’s ok. He’s likely to become a distant memory after his racist, misogynistic tweets were exposed. But you probably recognize the name, Ellen Degeneres, who’s had an equally problematic history.
And yet, one of these Hollywood gremlins still has a job.
It’s time to change that, and I’m not talking about getting Sawyer his job back.
Although Hartley Sawyer’s Twitter account has been deleted, people have been spreading screenshots of his past tweets over the last couple of weeks.
Here are some of Sawyer’s gems:
The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.
Seriously, Hartley? Most comic book fans don’t know who you are, let alone Al Sharpton.
Here are some of the tweets that drew criticisms of misogyny:
Enjoyed a secret boob viewing at an audition today
If I had a wife I would beat the hell out of her tonight lol
Good thing he doesn’t have a wife today; who knows what he’d do.
Despite Sawyer issuing the standard lengthy apology on his Instagram page , the executive producer of ‘The Flash’ decided to can the problematic actor.
Eric Wallace tweeted a statement saying Hartley Sawyer’s tweets “broke my heart and made me mad as hell.” He also noted that Sawyer would not be returning to the show.
Meanwhile, Ellen Degeneres still, inexplicably, has a job despite her terrible behavior.
Ellen Degeneres has had questionable ethics for years now. She’s managed to hide behind her LGBTQ identity, but it’s time we acknowledge that people can be awful no matter who they’re attracted to.
In 2016, Ellen tweeted a picture of her riding on the back of black sprinter Usain Bolt like a horse.
The internet was rightfully outraged at the racist implications. But Ellen Degeneres weaseled her way out, claiming it was ok because they were friends.
She’s been known to mistreat her employees. One former Ellen staffer told the New York Post:
It irritates me that people think she’s all sweetness and light and she gets away with it.
But don’t take her word for it. During the 2007 writer’s strike, Ellen double-crossed her staff by crossing the picket line. That move came a week after she cried on-air about giving away a puppy.
The Writer’s Guild of America stated:
We find it sad that Ellen spent an entire week crying and fighting for a dog that she gave away, yet she couldn’t even stand by writers for more than one day.
But that’s her typical move: appear warm on the outside to cloak her cold interior.
You can see and feel her egomaniacal energy in this clip, where she shames Dakota Johnson for not inviting her to a birthday party.
Say what you want about Hartley Sawyer, but at least his tweets were from years ago. Sawyer also never claimed to be a leader for equality.
Ellen Degeneres, who postures as an ally to all, has been tone-deaf throughout the current manifestation of Black Lives Matter.
She was roasted for making a recent tweet all-inclusive when it should’ve been directly addressed to black people.
Then she gave us what absolutely no one asked for: another white woman filming herself crying about racism.
While she claimed to want “fairness and justice for all,” Twitter called her out for mistreating her staff.
Some called her out for befriending war criminal George W. Bush.
Others reminded us that she likened quarantine to being in jail, even though she lives in a mansion.
If it feels like Ellen Degeneres can’t get a break, it’s because she doesn’t deserve one.
She’s had a hugely successful talk show for 18 years despite being morally bankrupt. It’s time she joined Hartley Sawyer on the unemployment line.