Food Network Star Sorry for 'Flippant' Holocaust Joke

Alton Brown wondered about 'camp uniforms,' mentioned Auschwitz
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 12, 2020 12:41 AM CST
Updated Nov 12, 2020 2:00 AM CST
Food Network Star Sorry for 'Flippant' Holocaust Joke
In this Oct. 26, 2016 photo, Alton Brown poses for a portrait in New York to promote his cookbook, "EveryDayCook: This Time It’s Personal," and a live Broadway variety show with a mix of unusual food demonstrations, puppets and songs.   (Photo by [Victoria Will]/Invision/AP)

Alton Brown stepped in it Tuesday night with Twitter comments about the Holocaust that he has since apologized for. In a since-deleted tweet that will live on forever in screenshots, he wrote, "Do you think the camp uniforms will be striped, like the ones at Auschwitz or will plaid be in vogue?" It obviously did not go over well, and Brown tweeted Wednesday, "I apologize for the flippant reference I made to the Holocaust in my tweet last night. It was not a reference I made for humorous effect but rather to reflect how deeply frightened I am for our country. It was a very poor use of judgement and in poor taste." Some of Brown's other tweets from Tuesday night remain up, however, including a foul-mouthed response to a user who suggested he "take it easy" and a reply to another user noting, "I have no gold fillings." (Such fillings were torn from the mouths of Jews in concentration camps.)

Many were horrified at the comments, particularly coming from a non-Jew, regardless of whether they were supposed to be a warning about the current political climate. Brown had on Monday night revealed, in another apparently deleted tweet regarding President Trump, "I have voted Republican most of my life. I consider myself a conservative. I want to believe there are still 'very fine' people on both sides of the aisle but...if #GOP leaders don't get their collective noses out of that man's a**, we're gonna have words." That was also met with backlash, Newsweek notes; many fans took issue with his politics, and at least one called it "gross" that Brown used Trump's own "very fine" line regarding the alt-right. Eater notes those on the left have long taken issue with some of Brown's stances, including his stance on guns, and that he's reportedly made racist jokes in the past. And it points out that he actually made multiple references to "camps" Tuesday, and that he'd said he was not joking and that the US is at risk of becoming a fascist country. (More Food Network stories.)

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