By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
9-1-1 actor Oliver Stark attempted to extinguish a behind-the-scenes fire on Sunday, following co-star Ryan Guzman‘s defense of using racial slurs.
First, some background: In May, fans of Guzman — who plays firefighter Eddie Diaz on the Fox drama — had uncovered tweets that his fiancée, Brazilian actress and model Chrysti Ane, posted in 2011 in which she used the N-word. (Ane has since issued a formal apology for the tweets, explaining that she was dating a Black man at the time and felt accepted by the Black community during their relationship, but she “didn’t fully comprehend the weight of the word” in the past.)
On Sunday, Guzman defended both his fiancée and himself in an Instagram Live, adding that he and his friends of other ethnicities “call each other slurs all the time.”
“I have plenty of friends — Black, white, Asian, Indian, whatever they are, Korean — and we make fun of each other’s races all the time. We call each other slurs all the time,” Guzman stated. “We don’t get butthurt at all because we know the actual person, we know who each other are. We know that we’re not trying to bring each other down. So, what are y’all trying to get at? You’re trying to prove that somebody that’s not racist is racist? Nah. You don’t have that power. There is no racist energy coming from this household at all.”
Meanwhile, during Guzman’s Instagram video, some of his followers posted comments such as, “THERE IS NO N WORD PASS” and “Ryan, please… that’s not okay.” The actor later posted a tweet that read, “I’m done with defending myself or my family to people who are as quick to judge as they are to condemn. Let me get back to the real topic and help out any way I can to the black community.”
Two hours after Guzman’s tweet, Stark (who co-stars as 9-1-1‘s Buck) posted his own response, denouncing his co-star’s behavior: “I know a lot of you want to hear my thoughts on what a cast member said today on IG live. I can tell you that my opinion is there is absolutely no excuse for the use of the N-word. It belongs to the Black community only and I absolutely don’t agree with it being used by anyone else under any circumstances.”
TVLine has reached out to Fox for comment.
UPDATE: Guzman’s co-star Aisha Hinds, who plays firefighter Hen, also addressed Guzman’s comments. “How I FEEL daily is a perpetual state of GRIEF. There’s sadly no version of this indefensible discourse that doesn’t exacerbate that grief,” she shared in a tweet on Monday. “There’s legions of learned behaviors that need to be named and neutered so we don’t continue to give life to them. May we know & DO BETTER.”
The backlash comes amid ongoing global protests against systemic racism and police brutality, sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in Minneapolis in May after a police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes while arresting him. The officer, Derek Chauvin, has since been arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.
No mention that Chrysti Ane was a Power Ranger?!
OMG! I had to google her! She was the pink ninja steel! (Her acting was so bad, tho)
Firstly, agree with Oliver completely, although he should feel obligated to comment on comments his co-star made on IG live – what a world we live in. Second, how dumb some celebrities are in age of social media – even if Ryan and his group of friends feel they can say these things to each other in private then keep it private! We wouldn’t know if you hadn’t told us. Just apologize for the tweet and move on. I would have never known his girlfriend even had old tweets if it wasn’t for this. Now it’s going to be a big thing. And it’s his own fault.
*he shouldn’t feel obligated
He was being bombarded with tweets about it. He probably felt obligated so it would stop.
I know Americans think the entire world is America, but it isn’t. You can’t export music where the n-word is so prevalent and expect that people from other countries will understand you cannot say a word they hear so often in music. You can educate foreigners on why that is so, but cut them some slack if they don’t understand that from the get-go, the same way you might not understand how honorifics work in Japanese.
Ryan Guzman was born in Texas so what you said doesn’t apply here.
Read the article. He defended his Brazilian girlfriend for singing a rap song years ago that contained the word in question.
She’s lived in the US since she was six so I don’t think the lost in translation excuse applies. Besides, as it states in the article she felt she could say it because she was dating a black guy at the time nothing about her being ignorant because of language barriers.
I wasn’t familiar with her so I had no idea she’s lived in the US since she was 6! I posted below about Derek’s “non-Americans don’t understand American culture” theory and how if that was the case, RG should’ve explained it that way, but if she grew up here there’s zero excuse. Ugh.
It’s all about communication. I tell my friends upfront, regardless or their race, that it’s NEVER okay to call me the “N” word. I don’t care how close we are or how comfortable we feel with each other, that’s a line I would never tolerate being crossed. And for the record, while the word is used a lot in some black music, there are many many people of colour that are not okay with its use in any form. It’s a myth and stereotype to believe that all black people are okay with the use of that word within their communities/families/friend groups.
I always find it obnoxious and rude when someone says things like Americans think this, Americans think that. Not all of us think the entire world is America. I feel like because so many of our brethren from other countries see what the media or what a loud few people on social media put out that that’s all of us. It frankly isn’t true. We all need to stop generalizing and think. This is coming from an American black woman. A trans woman as well.
It irks me when some people from some country used the word “American”. I always reply oh, your are from Colombia!!! if they answer back, we are from north America. Oh Canada…
It is prove how self-center some people are.
I understand your point, but you could also see it from the point of view that people from the United States of America are usually called Americans because it is in the name of the country, just like people from Canada are called Canadians, people from Columbia Columbians, etc. If people from the USA shouldn’t call themselves Americans because it is also the name of a continent, what should they call themselves? United States of Americans would be a bit of a mouthful!
Except the guy the article’s about (and the one getting most of the criticism) is American. Judging by this article his fiancee isn’t, but he could’ve made the point you’re trying to make–she’s from a different country and doesn’t undersand the cultural context, rather than defend what she said.
Was the world really waiting to hear the opinion of the super white dude?
Says the super White dude! And as someone who watched Ryan’s IG live video…he didn’t make it better. He got angry and he got combative because he was reading the comments and responding. That was a mistake. The more he talked and tried to defend her the worse the comments got. And FYI, Ryan mentioned Oliver by name in the live video. I don’t recall exactly what he said but it wasn’t bad. I’m sure that got back to Oliver and thus he responded!
What you say to your friends regardless of their racial make up is not an example for how everyone should speak to each other regardless of racial make up.It’s downright stupid to think that’s how the general population should conduct themselves among people who do not know each other.The original girlfriend posts I get because she is not an American and was dating a black man but that too should not be an example of how to interact with people you do not know,As for Oliver,he has the right to express his opinion just like Ryan did.You the reader have a right to agree or disagree with either of them.
It can be problematic to navigate. People do pick up slang and lingo from their inner circle of friends. When the circle of friends is racially diverse, it can get complicated. Especially for children.
What an idiot. I hope he gets fired. I’m Latino too and never called my black friends the n word. THERE IS NO N WORD PASS!
That’s not really true. I’ve had friends of mine in the past tell me that I had “the pass”. I got where they were coming from and appreciated that we were cool enough that they trusted me in that way. But, I never, for lack of a better word or phrase, took advantage of it it because it was never a word that I wanted to get comfortable with. I can guarantee you though that “the pass” was for use in their company only. If I went around using it with anybody outside of our group there would have been an issue.
I personally hope that you get fired
I blocked a black actor on twitter after he said “only WE get to use N”.
.
Uh, NO YOU DON’T!
.
No one does. There’s no pass for ANYONE, because double standards are BS!
And I’m 150% that black actor didn’t care nor know you exist. Black people reclaimed a word used to hurt them. Took ownership of it and shut the door on anyone else saying.
If you are so bothered because you can’t say the N-word. It speaks volumes about the low hanging fruit you are, Daya. Keep being WRONG and IRRELEVANT!
So what’s your perspective on can blacks be racist? If an African American calls a Chinese person the C**** word is that racist?
Of course it is. But that really isn’t the problem here, is it? So what you are doing is what Trump does: you are deflecting. Solving for a problem that doesn’t really exist, certainly not in THIS moment, while not solving for the one that does.
And I don’t care if she was born here, lived here, visited here once or only saw America from a TV. People who think there is a pass are part of the problem. Even if it was socially ok in her group, it wouldn’t have been ok if she said it to me, because your group that gave you “the pass” doesn’t speak for everyone, or even a minute fraction of the people who might get hurt by it. It is basic common sense.
That was a lot of babble just to say that you don’t give a damn. And you say I’M wrong and irrelevant! 😂
And it’s 2021, and you’re still wrong and irrelevant!
The problem with joking among friends is that some actually will mean it.
we should abolish friendships just to be sure
Recommendation to TVLine – don’t include a photo of an actor not associated with it. People who might not know which actor you are referring to, might think the other one condones the use of the N word.
I just hope this doesn’t mess with any future Buddie Storylines
Really?! THAT’S your takeaway from this?
The whole thing is very dumb and peak outrage culture, so that’s my takeaway too.
Your post is completely tone-deaf.
I hope this *does* mess with any future Buddie storylines.
Wow shocked and disappointed to say the least. What a shame
Considering how contentious the use of that word is, even inside the black community, he should have known how well that was going to be received. But I guess they didn’t hire him for his intellect. Still, there’s a difference between hatefulness and naïveté, so I don’t think it’s worth stomping the guy, too much.
I follow him on IG. I saw this when he went live. It started off okay but then it got worse as it went on. He motivation seemed to be getting called out by his fans asking him to comment and address it. He said as much at the beginning of his video. The mistake he made was actually reading the comments. Some if the comments were not nice and about his fiancé and he took issue with that and you could see his temper start to flare. He made it worse by returning fire saying like don’t come for me or those I love. That’s his prerogative. He could have def handled things better. He also is the one who brought up Oliver’s name. I don’t remember it being in a negative but it seemed random when it did it. That must have gotten back to Oliver and so he commented on it. I hope they can discuss it and squash any tension. Oliver didn’t say anything bad. He gave his opinion on it.
This is why there is discord these two should work this out between the two of them! For gosh sakes we do not need to know all this… this is why and how it all gets started! I am a Vietnam Nurse Vet and if I took offense to this country for treating me and the rest of the vets like dirt then it is between me, my friends and my God not any of you!
I live in Asia and people here occasionally use the N word whem referring to black people not realising it’s negative connotations in the West. They also don’t say it in a racist way.
I don’t believe that for one second as racist as Asians can be against black people.
Oh good, the I’m not racist i know black people defense. The rallying call of racists everywhere
Yes, the Grandwizard has a lot of blackfriends… that he murdered.
I watched that IG’s of Guzman’s and knew there was a publicist somewhere about to have a heart attack. It was a train wreck. The boy needs to learn to ignore trolls on Twitter and sit down with a couple of books on understanding institutional racism.
Not defending or condemning Chrysti Ane but maybe it would be fair to also include in the article that she was 16 in 2011 when those tweets were made so the context is clear. And yes, the black community does not get that privilege or protection applied to their children, I know.
Agreed. He did himself no favors. I watched it too and you could literally see his temper start to flare. The trolls got to him. He should have ignored the comments. He did respond to some but then he became clear by the look on his face the shade and negativity was getting to him. I hope they can work it out otherwise–filming might be awkward and there will probably be tension.
High five for the people who survived that viewing. And you’re right. It was like the Simpsons episode where Ralph’s heartbreak gets played in slow motion on the VCR. You saw it all go wrong. I’m concerned he’ll get fired over it. Between Oliver, Aisha and Rockmond dragging him on Twitter, allies are short on the ground. And I don’t see Angela Bassett wanting Guzman around if he doesn’t do a mea culpa soon.
I can only imagine 9-1-1 will be writing him off the show ((and rightfully so)).
I can only imagine you will rightfully lose you job as well
I hate the n word. It’s one of the worst slurs there is. Some Latinos use it around black people and get away with it. That’s a fact. Jennifer Lopez even has a song with Ja Rule in which she uses the slur. I remember that caused some controversy at the time but ultimately it didn’t do anything to her career. Let’s just not use any racial slurs at all. They’ve never been necessary.
Ryan Guzman and his fiance are both racist. How do I know? Because they both feel like they can use the N word and “make fun of other races.” I don’t think a minority’s identity should ever be the basis of a joke. There, simple as that.
And he said it! I didn’t was going to use the “black friends” line but he did. Thank you. If I don’t hear “I have black friends” when someone does something remotely racist, I get worried.
Frankly, all I have to say on the matter, in my opinion NOBODY should be using the n-word. Full-stop.
..or any kind of slurs for that matter.
So now Ryan Murphy can either fire him from the show or make his character gay!
It’s sad that people don’t realise that the cancel culture is worse than communism. Now we have new McCarthyism based on North American political correctness. US people don’t even know that in some languages the N word don’t even have negative connotation.
There is also a point to be made for holding people accountable for their actions. As a gay man, I have no interest in following the career of someone that uses the “f” word to harass, diminish, or emasculate someone. The sexuality of the person the slur is being used against doesn’t even come into play. The issue is the derogatory term being wielded like a weapon to harm someone else. I believe that people can change and that people should be given chances to improve themselves and grow, but that can only happen when folks accept that they have erred and make an effort to educate themselves.
It’s true that cancel culture can be taken too far at times. Is this one of those times? I don’t know. What I do know is that I’m just as entitled to my opinion and he is.
I like his character but I don’t give a flying fork about him. SACK HIM!!!
Black white asain the use of the N word should never be used in Any format. I remember when it was demeaning thing to be called a Pollack. We just need to bury this word. Period