One of Marvel’s Defenders, Luke Cage actor Mike Colter, came under fire for comments related to Ariana Grande after she attended the funeral of the late Aretha Franklin.
Ariana Grande was there to pay tribute to the late Franklin where she was both the butt of a joke and is now the center of a groping controversy.
The groping controversy occurred as she took the stage with the late singer’s Pentecostal Bishop, Charles Ellis. The video of the incident is below:
Pastor Ellis issued a statement to the AP addressing the situation:
“It would never be my intention to touch any woman’s breast. … I don’t know I guess I put my arm around her. Maybe I crossed the border, maybe I was too friendly or familiar but again, I apologize.”
He added:
“I hug all the female artists and the male artists. Everybody that was up, I shook their hands and hugged them. That’s what we are all about in the church. We are all about love.”
In a now-deleted Tweet, Mike Colter retweeted some footage of the controversy and wrote,”Now THIS is how you shot your shot! Zero F***!!”
It didn’t’ take long for Twitter users and fans to jump on Colter, accusing him of being insensitive to the harassment suffered by Grande. After the push back, Colter deleted the Tweet.
.@LukeCage star Mike Colter tweets(and then deletes) reaction to pastor groping Ariana Grande. pic.twitter.com/rRrQS4qyGv
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) September 1, 2018
How did Mike Colter expect people to take that Tweet as sarcasm. It didn’t read anything like that at all…he had crying laughing emojis after it
— Justin Davis [Anti-Crack Account] (@OGJOHNNY5) September 2, 2018
Me, watching Mike Colter get dragged for multiple transgressions pic.twitter.com/rXnG1Yxj8z
— what's a topanga?? (@dollarsfall) September 1, 2018
We can finally cancel Mike Colter pic.twitter.com/hnhsrEiAMQ
— Andrew Hammond (@ahammsportsgeek) September 1, 2018
I said I don’t vibe with Mike Colter. Yuck. https://t.co/ZA5aEWPjtr
— Kelechi Okafor (@kelechnekoff) September 1, 2018
One person even went so far as to associate the actor with sock puppet accounts:
Mike Colter reminds me of the white men that make accounts pretending to be black people lmao
— Nerdy Babes Brunch (@VanessaCherie) September 1, 2018
The actor for his part addressed the situation and explained himself in a now deleted Tweet. Here is the text:
“Hello all. I apologize about my tweet earlier. In no way do I condone any such behavior. It was intended to point out the absurdity of the act itself. Complete and biting sarcasm. I realized quickly that it was not taken as such. I was at an event all day. Sorry for the delay??”.
What do you think, was he being extremely insensitive towards Grande? Or was the actor just true to his word and being sarcastic about the situation?