Redemption Today
To what extent should people be held accountable for (accusations of) their past mistakes?
“Whether you’re poor or whether you’re rich, you got to know, payback’s a b*tch. All that time you had your fun, all the time you were on the run, all that stuff you’ve ever done, it’s all coming back to number one. Everything you ever do, all that’s coming back to you. All the times, all the push, all the shove. It’s like Mother Teresa said: you can do no great things, but only small things with great amounts of love.” — Robin Williams, Live on Broadway 2002
It’s 2019, and now more than ever is payback really being a you-know-what. In a day and age where prolonged silence is finally being broken, more and more are the mistakes of the past being shed light on. Peoples’ previous misactions are now being brought forth and discussed. For good reason, we must hold those accountable for their wrongdoings. However, how we qualify accountability is blurred. It shouldn’t be that we hold on to an irrelevant mistake of a relevant person and punish them for it. Rather, we should evaluate whether or not that person has properly evolved and matured, and if we can firmly say that the person today is not the same as the one of the day of that act. It’s not about the past; it’s about redemption today.
Technological and digital advances are a danger to our society. Anything and everything is documented, and of course there is significant risk with that. We must be cautious with how we present ourselves electronically.
A new rule has developed for celebrities and common folk alike: never ever tweet. The scrutiny that the all mighty tweeter can receive is absurd and certainly not worth the 140 characters. According to Statista, Twitter is the United States’ fourth largest social media networking site, so clearly posts are well-viewed once released. However, what makes matters worse is that old entries can be dug up by nosy internet scavengers. Researchgate is upon us, and celebrities are the biggest victims.
The most recent and notable sufferer of their Twitter being investigated is comedian and actor Kevin Hart. On December 4, 2018, the African-American funnyman was announced as the host for the ninety-first Academy Awards. However, just a day later, he stepped down due to the public criticism surrounding alleged homophobic tweets from 2010 and 2011. Although he apologized to the LGBTQ community, Hart nonetheless saw his controversy as unjustified.
“If you don’t believe people change, grow as they get older, I don’t know what to tell you.” — Kevin Hart
No one stepped forward and offered to host the prestigious Oscars, as many did not want to associate with the current controversy of the position and do not want their own previous mistakes brought into the spotlight. The common viewer suffered as well, as a luxurious television event was clouded with uncertainty and dishonor prior to the show, and the live event fell short on providing entertainment to its audience.
While Hart’s experience is by far the most timely and high profile, there are still countless examples of these types of scandals. In July 2018, Disney severed its ties with James Gunn and fired him as director of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as the media drew attention to tweets he wrote from 2008 to 2012, joking about topics such as rape, child abuse, and pedophilia. Cast members of the film publicly expressed their support for Gunn, and it wasn’t until March 18, 2019 that Disney decided to rehire him. Gunn didn’t work on any projects in the time between his firing and reinstatement.
Outside of Hollywood, athletes have faced the unfair consequences of embarrassing tweets resurfacing. Former Villanova guard Donte DiVincenzo had profane tweets emerge from 2011, when he was 14 years old, following his Most Outstanding Player (MOP) performance in the national title game of the 2018 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) basketball tournament. A similar scenario applied to now Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, as racist posts from 2012 and 2013, before he was in high school, came to the public just hours before he was selected in the 2018 National Football League (NFL) Draft. This past summer, Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Josh Hader had a series of tweets from 2011 and 2012, when he was not even legally an adult, discovered during his brilliant performance in the 2018 Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game. All three players, all in their early twenties, fell victim to being immature teenagers growing up in the digital age.
For better or worse, the internet never forgets. But in the case of resurfaced tweets, is it necessarily that something is remembered or that research is done at the right moment? When looking across all the examples of Twitter controversies, a common trend is evident: all occurred when the celebrity was at the new height of their fame. It is not that the public is recalling these past instances, but rather that when celebrities to come to new a peak in their career, there is the sudden urge to dig into their pasts and nitpick their faults. It sends the message that people should fear success, for if they are fortunate to achieve any, the naysayers will quickly attack them.
While, yes, no person, let alone a celebrity, should say something offensive on a public platform, they are not the ones truly at fault here and should not have their reputations ruined by irrelevant past mistakes. Although they did commit the sin, it is more disappointing that the public chose to ignore them while it actually took place, and instead only focus on them well after the fact when the sinner is of prominence. It should not take several years to notice an offensive tweet. Going forward, when it comes to Internet controversy, we must ask ourselves: are we dwelling on this because the post is relevant, or simply because the poster is?
Beyond the realms of the cyber-world, disputes over one’s past have taken their toll over an already blazing political climate. In July of 2018, when now Justice Brett Kavanaugh was one of few nominees to fill the vacant spot on the Supreme Court, Christine Blasey Ford came forward to a member of the Washington Post that she had been sexually assaulted by Kavanaugh while the two were in high school in the early 1980’s. While Ford wished to remain anonymous, her name was eventually leaked. Meanwhile, Kavanaugh quickly released a statement to the White House fully denying the allegations. What ensued was a full fledge hearing between the two to access the validity of Ford’s accusation. Kavanaugh’s trial peaked the national interest with its publicity and televisation, drawing comparisons to the trial of OJ Simpson in regards to its country-wide intrigue.
While the allegations could not be confirmed and Kavanaugh eventually assumed his seat on the Court, he nonetheless suffered from the hearing. He was publicly shamed and humiliated for an act that allegedly happened over 30 years ago. A grown man was forced to tears as he had to use calendars documenting his teenage years. Though the possibility of something as severe as sexual assault must be addressed, Brett Kavanaugh is still an example of a tainted view of evaluating accountability: an example when modern growth wasn’t measured, but rather only focusing on the specifics of the event. If the past cannot change, why dwell on what happened? Instead, prioritize how people responded to their errors.
Unfortunately, this is not the only example of such an occurrence taking place in the political world. This year, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam became the subject of controversy after a photo surfaced from his med-school yearbook that displayed a man dressed in blackface standing next to another man dressed in a KKK robe. Although it is unconfirmed if Northam was indeed the man in the photo, he still issued an apology. People didn’t even stop to consider if a costume from several decades prior is truly reflective of an elected official and that he could move past such misjudgement. Instead, many called for his immediate resignation as his Attorney General, Mark Herring, admitted to using blackface in the past as well.
While racism and its historic roots in this country can not be ignored, removing officials from office will not resolve the underlying problem. If the two were to step down, who’s to say that Virginia would end up with better leadership than those in power now? Calling for resignation is a knee-jerk reaction that is reflective of our inability to think objectively and holistically. There is such a thing as continuity and change over time that allows us to in the 2010’s to look at something that occurred in the 1980’s with the correct lense.
We cannot ignore the possibility of change.
I was recently brought forth the possibility of an additional requirement in the Student Council election process at my high school. This added amendment would allow for teachers that write the necessary recommendations for prospective candidates to have access to the student’s full and complete high school disciplinary record. The rationale behind this was that it would allow a teacher to think twice and consider a student’s behavior outside of their experience with them.
I immediately found this amendment preposterous (and thankfully it was shut down and not even discussed), as it violated the fact the recommendation was based of the personal encounters of a teacher with the student. But more importantly, it would created an ill standard for our student government officials. We should not be looking for the perfect students; as it is the crop of candidates is very limited and we shouldn’t further shrink it. Instead of looking for students with the cleanest bills of behaviors, we should promote students that have had some slip ups, but chose to use them as opportunities to learn and grow. After all, a student that has some past “behavioral issues” but can then become a respectable member of a community is much more reflective of the student body as a whole than the student who has never made a mistake before.
We are humans; we make mistakes. It’s what makes us human. Instead of dwelling on the past, we should embrace it as an example of development. We should celebrate the evolution of a human being from error to correction. It’s not about what people did then and how do we punish them now, but rather determining if that person is different now than they were then. We must see if they have taken their mistake as a learning opportunity and matured. Life is a test that doesn’t allow retakes, but it sure does allow revisions. Let’s not keep trying to frantically erase our miscalculations, but instead draw an arrow to the work of the fully correct completion of our answer. The past is in the past, so redeem today.
Works Cited
Di Placido, Dani. “The Strange Story of James Gunn.” Forbes, www.forbes.com/sites/danidiplacido/2018/07/21/the-strange-story-of-james-gunn/#99f823ae0192.
Newton, Casey. “How Kevin Hart tweeted himself out of a job hosting Oscars.” The Verge, 8 Dec. 2018, www.theverge.com/2018/12/8/18131221/kevin-hart-oscar-hosting-homophobia-twitter-tweets. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.
Wikipedia. “Blackface.” Wikipedia, 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackface#United_States. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.
— -. “Brett Kavanaugh.” Wikipedia. Wikipedia, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brett_Kavanaugh#Sexual_assault_allegations. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.
Photo Links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gunn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Allen_(quarterback)
https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2019/02/03/rs-reporters-stunned-by-northams-press-conference.cnn
https://onthewight.com/jonathan-dodd-9/ben-okri-quote-by-arenamontanus/
