D.L. Hughley doesn’t get sexual assault. In an August 2018 video interview, he claimed Terry Crews couldn’t possibly have been a victim of an unwanted alleged groping by William Morris agent Adam Venit two years ago, because surely someone with big muscles would punch a powerful Hollywood exec in front of a lot of other powerful people at a public function. Right?
It looks like the video started circulating recently, because, per Deadline, on Sunday Crews called Hughley out for his statements—which included gems like “I think it’s hard for me to think that a dude with all those muscles can’t tell an agent to not touch his ass,” and “Hey, motherfucker, God gave you muscles so you could say no and mean it.”“Are you implying that I ‘wanted’ to be sexually assaulted?” Crews tweeted. Hughley, it appears, was unmoved.
When Crews pointed out that he did, in fact, try to restrain Venit during the 2016 incident, Hughley was equally callous in his response:
Hughley isn’t the only person who’s seemingly sneered at Crews for sharing his story; indeed, both Russell Simmons (who has himself been accused of sexual assault) and 50 Cent mocked him for coming forward.
Crews has repeatedly said he pushed Venit off, alerted police, and pressed charges (a civil suit he filed against Venit was dismissed last year.) And though Hughley seems to think it’s simple enough to beat someone up after they grope you, it’s far easier for you to get charged with assault if you punch a person in public than it is to get them charged with sexual assault.
This is even more likely when the person who allegedly assaulted you is a celebrated agent with powerful clients like Adam Sandler, Michael B. Jordan, Sylvester Stallone, Dustin Hoffman, Eddie Murphy, and Vince Vaughn, and when you are at a party full of other powerful people when you decide to do the punching. Not that Hughley cares.
Sigh.