The 2023 SAG Awards is catching flak for Mark Wahlberg’s role in the ceremony, presenting an award to the predominantly Asian cast of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” — 35 years after he was accused of hate crimes against Asians.
In 1988, the 51-year-old actor was convicted for assaults he committed in Boston when he was 16 toward two Vietnamese American men. Wahlberg hit Thanh Lam in the head with a stick while trying to steal alcohol and punched Johnny Trinh in the face. He alleged that he was high at the time.
He was charged as an adult with attempted murder and sentenced to two years on felony assault, but served only 45 days. In 2014, he applied for a pardon — a bid he dropped in 2016.
“I have apologized, many times,” he told the AP in December 2014. “The first opportunity I had to apologize was right there in court when all the dust had settled and I was getting shackled and taken away, and making sure I paid my debt to society and continue to try and do things that make up for the mistakes that I’ve made.”
But that wasn’t the only racist incident Wahlberg committed.
In 1986, Wahlberg and his white friends began hurling rocks and shouting racial epithets at a group of mostly black fourth-grade students on a field trip to the beach and chased them down the street. He was not tried and convicted for this attack, but was found guilty of violating the civil rights of his victims. The AP called it “essentially a stern warning that if they committed another hate crime, they would be sent to jail.”
At the SAG Awards Sunday, Wahlberg presented the final award of the evening for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture to the mostly Asian cast of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” — including…
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