Last week Tim Allen found himself the subject of controversy over some poorly worded jokes he made during a Jimmy Kimmel Live appearance about being conservative in Hollywood. The remarks generally echoed what he’s said in the past about how he feels Trump supporters are “bullied” in Hollywood, only this time he took it to an unfortunate new level by comparing the situation to ’30s Germany, elaborating that “you get beat up if you don’t believe what everybody else believes.”
Now, the Anne Frank Center is demanding an apology from the Last Man Standing star in a statement the organization released on its Facebook page earlier this week, over what it calls a “deeply offensive characterization that trivializes the horrors imposed on Jews in Nazi Germany.”
“Tim, have you lost your mind?” said Steven Goldstein, Executive Director of the Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect. “No one in Hollywood today is subjecting you or anyone else to what the Nazis imposed on Jews in the 1930s – the world’s most evil program of dehumanization, imprisonment and mass brutality, implemented by an entire national government, as the prelude for the genocide of nearly an entire people. Sorry, Tim, that’s just not the same as getting turned down for a movie role. It’s time for you to leave your bubble to apologize to the Jewish people and, to be sure, the other peoples also targeted by the Nazis.” #NeverAgain #Antisemitism
Representatives for Tim Allen have not yet commented on the controversy, and the comedian has likewise stayed silent on Twitter. Especially considering the rise of white nationalist groups under President Trump, it’s with any hope that Allen will choose his words more carefully in the future.
(Via EW)