Kevin Hart Responds to Backlash Over His Jussie Smollett Message

Kevin Hart sent a message of support to Jussie Smollett after he was the victim of a suspected hate crime earlier this week, and he caught some heat on Twitter for his message.

If you don’t know, Kevin was embroiled in controversy after old, anti-LGBTQ tweets resurfaced just a few weeks ago.

After news of the horrific hate crime, Kevin posted, “Sending prayers your way @jussiesmollett ….This is unbelievably sad. Why are we going backwards….this is disgusting. We as people have to do better. WTF is going on the world???? Why are we falling in love with hate???? God damn it people….Choose love…I repeat…Choose love. I will forever choose love and I will continue to teach my kids how to do the same. Stand strong brother.”

Amid the backlash to his message, Kevin responded directly to TV writer Ira Madison III who wrote, “your funniest joke congrats.”

“I stand with a man in his time of hurt and need by giving him heart felt support and u take the time to harp on my 10yr past that I have apologized about and moved on from by being a better person. Do you want change? If so I am an example of what u want people to do…CHANGE!” Kevin responded.

Ira then responded back, writing, “I ‘harp’ because my community of black queer people face violence 365 in America and when we tried to tell you that we weren’t trolling you but wanted to educate how your jokes lead to actions like what happened to Jussie, you went on Ellen to talk about your wheelchair movie.”