Problematic Tweets Come Back to Haunt Actor Running for Actor's Equity Council

Nowadays whenever someone runs for public office, their past is rightfully scrutinized and investigated. It doesn’t matter if it’s for president or local PTA officials, what you put on social media could be called into question. And a Florida actor running for Actor Equity’s National Council is finding that out after some problematic tweets from his past have been discovered.

Mark Richard Taylor is under fire today for his previous social media postings but also how he responded to the growing anger. Taylor is a candidate for Council At Large-Eastern Region with Actor’s Equity.

The issues stem from tweets Taylor posted in 2016 and 2017. The tweets contain not only explicit language directed at women but also include racist and Islamophobic rhetoric.

The first shows Taylor calling the Black Lives Matter movement, a terrorist group.

Taylor was apparently defending Jerry Seinfeld over his own BLM controversy.

Previously Taylor posted awful comments supporting banning Muslims from the US and calling a woman a “whore”.

Obviously this type of rhetoric is unacceptable now and unacceptable when he initially posted them. I’m not going to assume Taylor’s political allegiance but these comments fall right in line with what President Trump was saying at the same time.

But besides the issue of these with these tweets, Taylor went about defending himself in the worst way possible.

As the screenshots of his old tweets were posted, Taylor first answered to them like this:

The whole, “Ignore what you see here” argument didn’t go over well. Nor should it. While Mr. Taylor tries to downplay both the outrage and the position he’s running for, he’s not addressing the very problematic tweets from his past. Also, it’s unclear what group he’s talking about. The only “group” I saw is a group of performers of color who rightfully should be taking Taylor to task over these comments.

The next day Taylor tried to clarify.

This still didn’t solve the issue because there was no apology or explanation of why he said what he did. And before any states that we’re not entitled to that, he’s running for office within his union. Those who potentially vote for him are very much entitled to those answers. It should also be noted that it was right around this time when Taylor deleted his Twitter account in case these were just the tip of the iceberg. Not for nothing but people don’t delete their Twitter accounts unless there’s things there they don’t want us to see.

Finally, the next day, Taylor posted the following statement on his Facebook page.

I have learned that, regardless of how you intend something, the only thing that matters is how it is heard. I was overwhelmed with emotion when I first reacted to some old posts of mine being screenshot and forwarded amongst my fellow union members. I should have taken time to put more thought into my response as I failed to address those who may be hurting from the words I shared years ago.

I want to follow this with an apology to anyone who has been offended by the comments you may have seen. While I cannot diminish the impact made by a years-old, out- of-context comment, I can however, tell you I am sorry. A careless comment uttered without thought or in jest can nevertheless be heard as hurtful. I am learning and evolving along with everyone. My ideals no longer align with some of the comments I made previously and I expect that they will continue to change as I learn more about the experiences of those who have lived differently than I have.

I know what it’s like to be bullied and abused, but it’s only a fraction of what my fellow union members of color have gone through. If I may add, please know that the selective tweets were my own. Don’t disparage or associate my friends (who support me and care about me ) with those words. They’re all good people and not responsible. They are not to blame . I want you to know that I really do care and I am really sorry.

This apology was going well until he tries to defend his previous words about calling them “out-of-context”. There was nothing out-of-context about calling BLM a terrorist group. It was a hateful thing to say in 2016 and you’d have to be a racist moron to support that thought.

My other issue is that it took Taylor multiple days and multiple tries to get to an apology after dismissing and disqualifying the outrage from many fellow performers of color who were understandably concerned that someone running to represent them in their union might not listen to their voices down the road.

I find it justified to press Taylor for details on how his views have changed. We all know that racists and bigotry are better at hiding their hatred on social media in 2020 than they did in 2016. I’m not explicitly calling Taylor as a racist, but I don’t think it’s wrong to question if he is or isn’t given what he publicly said in the past.

For anyone who is defending Taylor or calling his critics “trolls”, understand that HE’S RUNNING FOR AN OFFICE THAT IS GOING TO REPRESENT THEM.

The final apology Taylor made is what he should have said initially(with some editing) and then spent the next couple of days repairing, he didn’t do any of that. He used terrible judgment when he said those things initially and even worse judgment in handling them now. Does he still deserve the votes and trust from his fellow union members? I’ll leave that up to him.