Time and time again we have seen celebrities say insensitive and horrible things online. For example- Alton Brown, who is well known for being the host of the popular TV series Cutthroat Kitchen, has recently been under heat for some comments he made on Twitter.
On November 12th, Alton Brown released a tweet that said, “Do you think the camp uniforms will be striped, like the ones at Auschwitz or will plaid be in vogue?”
Alton Brown received a ton of backlash for his tweet. One Twitter user said “depends on what you’re worth when you go in,” and Alton responded with “I have no gold fillings.” Another user told Alton “Yikes dude. Take it easy,” and Alton said “F— you.”
After seeing all the hate and backlash he was receiving, Alton issued out an apology that said “I apologize for the flippant reference I made to the Holocaust in my tweet last night. It was not a reference I made for humorous effect but rather to reflect how deeply frightened I am for our country.”
While it is great that Alton was able to issue out an apology in a timely manner, it still does not excuse the disrespectful tweet. To me, it felt like Alton was making light of the Holocaust and all the horrendous things that happened to people. Yes, our country is currently not in the best state, but to compare our situation with the Holocaust is wrong. Alton expressed that he is “deeply frightened” for the current situation of the country, but that does not justify comparing it to the Holocaust and disrespecting all the people that were killed.
Just to add a bit of perspective, The Atlantic states that “The Nazis killed more than 10 million people… including 6 million Jews.” This is a very sad and shocking amount of people that were killed in the hands of Nazi Germany and it makes it even more upsetting to see that Alton said such a distasteful comment.
While I wouldn’t necessarily say that I believe in “cancel culture”, I do believe it is important to hold people accountable for their actions. I do respect the fact that Alton issued out an apology the next day, since many people tend to ignore their errors instead of taking accountability. It is extremely frustrating when celebrities say or do something insensitive and take days or weeks to apologize. It is more likely for the apology to be accepted if the person is actually able to take accountability and make a genuine apology.
My family and I are huge fans of the show Cutthroat Kitchen, but I was very disappointed to learn that he said such an inconsiderate comment on Twitter. In today’s society with all the social injustices that are happening, I believe it is incredibly important for everyone to be held accountable for their actions. I do respect Alton’s apology, but I am not the one with the ability to accept it. I sincerely hope this serves as a lesson to him and I hope we do not see anymore comments like this.