After being outed for “problematic” tweets and likes — including liking tweets from Daily Wire editor-in-chief Ben Shapiro, Donald Trump, and Senator Marco Rubio — actor Israel Broussard of Netflix’s “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” has officially apologized for his “inappropriate and insensitive words and likes on social media.”
“I am deeply sorry for my inappropriate and insensitive words and likes on social media,” Broussard, who plays Josh Sanderson in the series, tweeted Tuesday after backlash over his past social media activity. “I take full responsibility for my actions and I sincerely apologize. This has been a pivotal life lesson for me. I am dedicated to becoming a more informed and educated version of myself.”
So what were those “inappropriate and insensitive words and likes”? The Daily Beast‘s Amy Zimmerman lays out the case against Broussard: He once posted an offensive attempt at a joke about Japanese food and dogs after Japan suffered a 7.0 magnitude earthquake, laughed off the idea of playing a gay role, and wrote that Black Lives Matter just wants to create “division.” He also “liked” tweets from Shapiro, Trump and Rubio.
Here’s Zimmerman presenting the evidence of Broussard’s “racist, homophobic tweets and ‘likes'”:
While Broussard appears to have deleted some of his offensive posts, one particularly vile archived tweet from July 2011 reads, “Dogs can sense earthquakes. Too bad Japan ate them all.” … In 2009, he allegedly wrote, “I’m not going out for a gay role, thank you though.” A 2016 post says, “Black Lives Matter has one goal. Division.” and “hashtags don’t f***ing matter. but all lives do. black lives matter. white lives matter. police lives matter.” Another alleged 2016 tweet reads, “if it were trumps emails, they’d be happy to hang him on the front lawn of the White House.”
Is some of that insensitive? Sure. Does any of it deserve an apology? The awful Japan joke, sure; some of the others, maybe.
But what appears to be the true offense Broussard has committed in the minds of his left-wing critics becomes clearer near the end of the list: He is politically conservative, a point underscored when Zimmerman highlights the backlash against Broussard’s hated “likes”:
But while those tweets are bad enough, Broussard’s likes were apparently even messier. Shared screenshots show that his recent likes included Trump and Marco Rubio tweets, and multiple gems from Ben Shapiro, such as, “The travel ban is not Japanese internment. Immigration enforcement is not Nazi Germany. READ A F***ING BOOK.” A twitter user captioned their post, “Look at this! These are some of Israel Broussard’s most recent likes. It really sucks that this man got to star in the rare film that had an Asian-American woman as the romantic lead,” adding, “Seriously, Israel Broussard’s likes are the biggest: pro gun, pro Trump, pro Ben f***ing Shapiro, anti Muslims, blacks and women, MESS.”
And so, in a routine we’ve seen before, Broussard has been compelled to apologize — even thanking his critics for having helped him learn this “pivotal life lesson” — and rededicate himself to becoming “a more informed and educated version” of himself.
