We Need To Talk About Anthony Anderson Hosting The Emmys

The Television Academy sparked backlash online when Anthony Anderson was announced as the host of this year’s Emmy Awards, which aired on Monday.

Advocates for victims of sexual assault were quick to remind the internet about the three separate sexual assault or misconduct allegations against the “Black-ish” star, spanning from 2003 up until as recent as 2018. He has denied each of them.

The Sexual Violence Prevention Association called for Fox and the Television Academy to remove Anderson as a host. That didn’t happen, of course, as Anderson took the stage on Martin Luther King Day accompanied by his mother, Doris Bowman, who he included in multiple bits throughout the night.

Anderson received much praise for his job hosting, but amidst that came more backlash. Folks took to social media to call out Anderson’s controversial history.

In 2004, the first woman alleged that she was “lured” into a trailer on the set of “Hustle and Flow” where Anderson and assistant director Wayne Witherspoon “began removing her clothes” and “sexually assaulted her,” according to the complaint published by The Smoking Gun. The report goes on to state that a witness heard the woman’s screams and unlocked the trailer door, after which she “ran from the trailer naked.” Anderson was charged with aggravated rape, but a Memphis judge dismissed the charges against Anderson and Witherspoon.

That same year, another woman filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Anderson under Jane Doe, seeking $900,000 in damages. The woman alleged that the assault occurred in his dressing room after a taping of “All About the Andersons” in Los Angeles in 2003. Doe said Anderson “made suggestive comments, grabbed her genital area and sexually assaulted her,” according