D.L. Hughley is now backpedaling and apologizing for recent comments he made about the domestic issues Columbus Short and his estranged wife, Tanee McCall-Short, are facing. Earlier this month, McCall-Short filed for divorce and obtained a restraining order, saying that Short had threatened to kill her, and himself, during an argument.
Suggested Reading
Apparently Hughley was #teamColumbus, because he immediately jumped to the former gladiatorโs defense. Hereโs what Hughley had to say on his online radio show about the alleged incident:
The star of one of the hottest dramas in the country chokes the fโk out of his wife? That doesnโt ever happen. I donโt think it happened, first off. Like the time Warren Sapp was getting ready to do the Super Bowl and some broad said that he raped her. There are just as many examples of women lying on men in the middle of divorce proceedings to get what they want as there are men who actually do anything. My point is if he did what sheโs alleging he did, she could still get all that sheโs going to have and not bring it up now, when it damages his market value that sheโs going to be impacted by. If he loses that job, nobodyโs living in Calabasas anymore.
I guarantee you, three years from now sheโs going to be thinking, โDamn, I should have shut the fโk up โฆ Women always running out the mouth when they shouldnโt. โฆ This bitch was thirsty. The bitch was thirsty. What, she gone go back to dancing? She gone fโk her money up?
Hughley then went on to blame McCall-Short for her alleged abuse:
When youโre very young, youโre very volatile. Iโve been in situations where the police were called. I donโt believe that every time someone says something in the heat of anger, they actually mean it. Everybody want a thug dude, a passionate dude, until you gotta live with your mother in an undisclosed location. You know what kind of dude you picked. Stop it.
After making those statements, Hughley wasnโt the most popular kid on the block. Many people feltย he was making excuses for Shortย as well as promoting domestic violence.ย
Hughley released a statementย Wednesday on BlackAmericaWeb regarding his caustic comments:
Last week during an after-show segment of my radio show, The D.L. Hughley Show, I unintentionally offended some people.
In regards to Columbus Shortโs legal issues, I jumped to a conclusion and blamed Tanee McCall-Short; and Iโm sorry. My intent was not to quiet victims.
When I did speak of the topic on air, I repeatedly emphasized then, and as I do now, that anyone who is convicted of domestic violence, should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law; and that is what I believe.
But on his radio show Wednesday night, he went into much greater detail with his apology:
Columbus Shortโs wife came up, and she is alleging that he had hit her with a wine bottle and assaulted her with a knife. I quickly jumped to Columbus Shortโs defense, and I put my mouth โฆ If this were a joke, or if I had a done a joke that people got offended by, I can honestly say I wouldnโt be apologizing. I donโt think humor, as subjective, as sometimes as cutting that it can be, I think thatโs something, thatโs where I draw a line; I wonโt apologize for that.
What I will apologize for is putting my mouth on a woman who was victimized by a man who I know, and before I knew the facts, or before I knew the severity or before I knew much of anything about it. And so Tanee McCall-Short, I put, I basically said that she was probably a gold digger, and I had no idea of the severity of what was going on. I quickly โฆ my, my, my sole apology is that I put my mouth on a woman, who was in fact being victimized, and that it came off as me silencing victims. Which, you know, that you were brutalized once and then I do it again. And so I am not in the habit of apologizing for things I donโt mean. Iโm not in the habit of saying things that I donโt mean. That was a comment I made, and putting my mouth on that woman was something I sincerely apologize for.
So I donโt condone violence. Iโve been married to a woman for 30 years. I can honestly say Iโve never physically abused anyoneโwell, men, but they deserved it. And Iโve never encouraged a woman to be silent deliberately about abuse. So if it came off that way, I have to apologize. I donโt know that you can encourage many women to be silent about much, but I want them to be silent in general, but just not about abuse.
I want them to have, I certainly want them to have a voice when somebody victimizes them. And as I said several times on that show, I think that anybody who victimizes anybody should be prosecuted to the fullest [extent] of the law.
I said it several times. And I think that a lot of times, you know, youโre in a position where your words carry a lot more weight than you give them credit for. So if somebody was offended by what I did, and certainly to this young lady, Tanee, I didnโt know that I was defending a dude who then later tore the door off the hinges.
So I pride myself on being a man, and you canโt be a man just when youโre doing something you like. You have to be a man when youโre doing something โฆ when youโve wronged somebody, and for that I give my apology.
But what is this โputting my mouth onโ supposed to mean? Is that his way of saying โbeing critical ofโ? Iโm going to need Hughley to pick his words a lot better than he has been.ย
Anyway, hopefully he now realizes that domestic violence isnโt something to joke about.ย
Yesha Callahan is editor of The Grapevine and a staff writer atย The Root.ย Follow her onย Twitter.
Straight From
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.