During a recent episode of his show Straight Shooter, Stephen A. Smith said he was disappointed to hear the joke Kevin Hart told about the ESPN host hating Black people.
“I swear to you on everything I love, I had absolutely no knowledge, no idea about this until this afternoon,” said Smith, seen in the clip below. “But when I learned about it, I'm not gonna front … It stung like hell.”
In The Roast of Kevin Hart on Netflix, which premiered earlier this month, Hart made a joke at the expense of host Shane Gillis and also name-dropped Smith, Hulk Hogan, and Kid Rock, calling them his “Mount Rushmore of racism.”
“Those are my four people when it comes to hating Black people,” Hart joked.
Smith said that he was especially surprised by the joke because he considers Hart a friend.
“First of all, or at least I thought I had, a pretty damn good relationship with Kevin Hart,” he said. “He’s been on my show on many occasions. I've known him for years. I don't know. I mean, it's a roast, but you know, he's getting crucified because a lot of people felt like too many jokes at this particular roast [were] tasteless.”
The sports commentator admitted that he’s “taken a lot of heat” over comments he has made in recent years and claimed that “some people from the Democratic Party” have been attempting to “silence” him.
“I'm somebody that has religiously voted Democrat and I support most Democratic views,” he continued. “And when I saw that Kevin Hart said this, you know, it was like one of those, where if it rains it pours kind of thing … Anybody expecting me to go after Kevin Hart, you got the wrong man. I've always had a lot of love for him.”
He conceded that Hart was telling a joke—but said he has an issue with the comment coming from someone he’s on good terms with.
“I've spent my life fighting on behalf of my community … People try to continue this narrative about me that I know is false, but that nevertheless still hurts to hear out of the mouth of anyone who knows me,” he said. “I could respond more vitriolically, but I won't. More incendiary, but I won't. Because Kevin Hart has never once in his lifetime did anything to me that deserves that. And he's too good of a brother and too good of a human being for me to even consider doing something like that. But it stung.”
