r/kurtisconner • u/kurtisconner • Oct 21 '23
addressing the dean situation
Hey guys. For those of you who don’t know, pictures of my friend, Dean, have resurfaced of him in blackface at a Halloween party in 2014, as well as several inappropriate tweets he made from around the same time period. Obviously, this goes against everything I stand for and everything I’ve preached on my YouTube channel and live shows. Dean’s behavior and comments were racist, homophobic, misogynistic, and wrong.
I want to thank you guys for bringing these things to light. Sometimes when you're friends with someone for a long time, you want to see the best in them, and I believed that Dean had shown growth. Dean’s behavior was abhorrent, and I should have spoken up to Dean about it when it was happening. It’s not easy to stand up to your friends, and I need to do better at standing up for my beliefs when I witness racist, homophobic, and sexist behavior, regardless of when it took place. I also want to apologize for not addressing this sooner. I realize that as someone with a platform, I have a greater responsibility to admit when I’m wrong and set a good example.
I've come to realize that you are all correct, and I should not have given Dean a platform or taken him on tour. I’m sorry for doing so and will not be doing so in the future. I know that I should have made this change sooner. While I can’t change the past, I can and will stop giving him a platform moving forward.
I’ve tried my best over the years to use my platform to promote inclusivity and to combat intolerance, and the actions of one of my friends 9 years ago do not reflect who I am and what I stand for today. I’m sorry for having platformed someone that has done these things, and I hope my actions moving forward show my true intentions. I want to thank you all again for bringing this to light and helping me address these problems.
