Law & Order: SVU veteran BD Wong is under fire after posting what he himself called a “racist” comment on Threads — a move that sent social media into a frenzy and forced the actor to issue multiple public apologies.
The longtime TV and film star, known for his roles in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Jurassic Park, and Mr. Robot, faced immediate backlash after responding to a viral post by animal expert Mike Holston (@therealtarzann), who is Black.
Holston had posted a lighthearted photo with an unusual animal, captioned, “Name this animal… wrong answers only.” Wong replied, “It appears to be a Black man.”
That comment, which he later deleted, was quickly screenshotted and circulated across Threads and X, drawing outrage. Many users slammed Wong’s words as a painful reminder of historic racist stereotypes equating Black people with animals.
“It was more than a bad joke, it was racist,” one user wrote. “Jokes are supposed to be funny — there’s nothing funny about dehumanizing Black people.”
Wong, 65, soon took to Threads again to apologize — not once, but twice.
“I want to elaborate re a racist comment I posted, to clarify that I recognize & accept the responsibility for how terrible it is,” Wong wrote. “It was also wrong to try to ‘explain’ anything. I do know better — no excuses.”
In an earlier post, he’d called his comment a “very bad joke” and said he deleted it “for damage control,” admitting, “It’s out there and continues to hurt & disappoint, and I’m really sorry about the hurt part.”
Wong explained that he had tried to play along with the “wrong answers only” prompt by giving “the wrongest answer,” but many weren’t buying it.
“You deleted it because of the backlash you knew was coming,” one user shot back. “Not because of the hurt you caused.”
Still, others defended the actor for owning up to his mistake, saying it takes courage to acknowledge wrongdoing publicly.
Wong ended his apology by saying he hopes to “spend the energy on how wrong I know it is to exploit a despicable, racist trope in the supposed spirit of humor.”
It’s unclear if the controversy will affect his ongoing projects, but fans — and critics — are watching closely.
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