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After spending years hosting countless ceremonies like the BET Awards, the MTV Video Music Awards, the MTV Movie and TV Award, comedian Kevin Hart announced that he will be hosting the 2019 Academy Awards next year.
For years I have been asked if I would ever Host the Oscars and my answer was always the same…I said that it would be the opportunity of a lifetime for me as a comedian and that it will… https://t.co/GFCpD7yH6M
— Kevin Hart (@KevinHart4real) December 5, 2018
Hart’s hiring was met with intense backlash online after his old homophobic tweets resurfaced on the social media site.
https://twitter.com/efie/status/1070485741006860288
https://twitter.com/adambvary/status/1070451517092651008
https://twitter.com/jaydmcgill/status/1070756033574985728
Maya Angelou once said “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” Guess @KevinHart4real is a homophobe. This will be the first @TheAcademy show I won’t be watching since I was child. 😢 #homophobia pic.twitter.com/sFkn2Xc5I3
— Bob (@rayoflightbobby) December 6, 2018
It appears that Kevin Hart and his team have been working quickly to delete all of his old problematic tweets.
so @KevinHart4real deleted the homophobic tweet I pointed out yesterday but there's still 40+ left. do people make mistakes? yep! but the question remains: what's he done to offset the negative impact these made? apologize? activism? philanthropy? anything? 👀 @TheAcademy pic.twitter.com/McOiDLlMET
— korey kuhl (@koreykuhl) December 6, 2018
Update: Kevin Hart addressed his old tweets on Instagram.
. “If you don’t believe that people change, grow, evolve, I don’t know what to tell you.”