BD Wong has issued a public apology after acknowledging that a comment he posted online was racist and harmful.
According to Newsweek, the longtime Law & Order: Special Victims Unit actor addressed the situation in a statement shared on his Threads account on Tuesday, December 2, writing that he recognized the seriousness of his remarks and accepted responsibility.
“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.
The apology followed backlash over a reply Wong left on Threads under a post from the popular nature-focused account @therealtarzann, run by Mike Holston.
In the post, Holston—a Black man—posed with an animal and invited users to comment by writing, “Name this animal…wrong answers only.” Wong replied, “It appears to be a Black man.”
Screenshots of the comment circulated widely after Wong deleted the reply. Critics quickly called out the remark, pointing to the long history of Black people being dehumanized and compared to animals.
One user responded, “Historically, Black people have been dehumanized & compared to animals, apes, monkeys to justify slavery, segregation, & ongoing violence; joking that a Black man is ‘the animal’ continues to that history.”
Others urged Wong to be direct in addressing the issue. “It was more than a bad joke, it was racist,” one person wrote. “Call it that and name your racism if you want to be genuine in your apology.”
In his statement, Wong said he understood that trying to rationalize the comment would only cause further harm. “It’s also wrong to try to ‘explain’ anything, & I think that causes a further breaking down in folks’ trust,” he wrote. Instead, he described his remark as relying on “a despicable, racist trope in the supposed spirit of humor.”
Wong added that he removed the comment to limit its spread, not to avoid accountability. He said he deleted it “so as to not unnecessarily perpetuate it, not just for myself but for all whom it would offend.”
The actor, whose career spans decades and includes roles in Jurassic Park, Mr. Robot, and hundreds of episodes of Law & Order: SVU, concluded his apology by owning the impact of his words. “Very sorry for the hurt I’ve caused & for taking lightly something so deeply injurious,” he wrote.