Mark Wahlberg Slammed For Presenting Asian Cast With Award Despite Anti-Asian Past
Mark Wahlberg speaks onstage during the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.
Mark Wahlberg and the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards sparked outrage for souring what should have been a celebratory moment for Asians and Asian Americans.
On Sunday night, Wahlberg presented the mostly Asian cast of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” with the award for best ensemble cast in a motion picture.
But people were quick to criticize the guild for choosing the “Father Stu” star to present this award, considering the anti-Asian and anti-Black crimes the actor committed as a teen.
In 1988, a 16-year-old Wahlberg hit a Vietnamese man in the head with a 5-foot wooden stick while trying to steal alcohol, beating the man unconscious and sending him to the hospital, CBS News and USA Today report. That same day, he punched another Vietnamese man in the face while trying to avoid the police. He used a series of racist slurs during the incident, according to NBC News.
Wahlberg was charged as an adult for attempted murder but was instead convicted of assault and served about 45 days in jail. He was also charged with criminal contempt for violating a prior civil rights injunction, CBS reports.
Previously, in 1986, Wahlberg and his friends chased a group of mostly Black fourth-graders on a beach in Boston, threw rocks at them and called them the N-word. Wahlberg and his friends received a civil rights injunction as a warning — meaning that if they committed another hate crime, they’d go to jail. Wahlberg’s assault on the two Asian men later violated this.
Wahlberg and the Screen Actors Guild did not immediately reply to a request for comment, but people on Twitter did not hold back.
mark wahlberg (who’s committed multiple hate crimes including against asian people) giving sag ensemble prize to a predominantly asian cast is genuinely such an embarrassing thing for hollywood to do
— onlyfans.com blue essay help (@thehornsections) February 27, 2023
I gotta say, having Mark Wahlberg, who literally went to jail as a teen for committing a hate crime against a Vietnamese man, present an award to the cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once was certainly a choice
— Bonnie Stiernberg (@aahrealbonsters) February 27, 2023
Friendly reminder that Mark Wahlberg violently attacked two Vietnamese men and I think it is quite obtuse that he was the one to announce Everything Everywhere All At Once as the winner of the SAG award tonight.
— Brian (@WeActuallyDidIt) February 27, 2023
REALLY interesting that Will Smith wasn't invited to present Best Actress while Mark Wahlberg is presenting the ensemble award to a film with a predominantly Asian cast when he punched and nearly blinded a Vietnamese man...
— Matt Samet (@MattSametEsq) February 27, 2023
I feel like if Mark Wahlberg (or his management) wanted his checkered racist past to fade into obscurity, presenting the SAG award to EEEAAO would not have been on the list of gigs to take.
— Cecilia Tan (@ceciliatan) February 27, 2023
No I’m so fucking mad that a man who brutally assaulted two asian americans and called them slant eyed g**ks got to announce this award that’s a historic win for Asian Americans, SAG Awards what the fuck and fuck you Mark Wahlberg
— kyra (@theasiantomato) February 27, 2023
mark wahlberg the hate crimer giving the cast of eeaao their sag award and having to stand there during their speech when they were talking about the racism towards asians in hollywood
— zoe (@MUGLERlZED) February 27, 2023
now why would they get mark wahlberg to present this to the Asian cast of EEAAO… #SAGAwardspic.twitter.com/9kFbsrBg5u
— lizzy (@meadowiIton) February 27, 2023
Having Mark Wahlberg present this is so ugly #SAGAwards
— The King of Burbank (@akingofburbank) February 27, 2023
Wow these #SAGAwards are going really well. What could go wrong?
Mark Wahlberg: pic.twitter.com/Xu08GF7Ptp— Joe (@Cinema_Joe23) February 27, 2023
In 2014, Wahlberg sought a pardon from Massachusetts state officials for his 1988 conviction but dropped the request in 2016. That year, he told The Wrap that he regretted the pardon request.
“It was one of those things where it was just kind of presented to me, and if I could’ve done it over again I would never have focused on that or applied,” Wahlberg said, claiming he “spent 28 years righting the wrong.”
“I didn’t need a piece of paper to acknowledge it,” he added. “I was kind of pushed into doing it, I certainly didn’t need to or want to relive that stuff over again”
He also told The Guardian in 2020 that he “did the work” to distance himself from his past.
“I took it upon myself to own up to my mistakes and go against the grain and not be a part of the gang any more — to say that I was going to go and do my own thing. Which made it 10 times more difficult to walk from my home to the train station, to go to school, to go to work,” he said.
But some Twitter users argued that the Asian community deserved better.
“out of all people why did they have MARK WAHLBERG,” one person tweeted. “you could’ve chosen anyone else.”