Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington said
racism was a factor in his firing from the hit television
series after he twice used an antigay slur.
Washington, who
initially used the epithet during an onset clash with a
costar, told Newsweek magazine that ''someone
heard the booming voice of a black man and got really scared
and that was the beginning of the end for me.''
He tried to make
amends by expressing remorse and volunteering to enter a
counseling program to understand how the confrontation got
out of hand, he told Newsweek.
''My mistake was
believing that I would get the support from my network
and all of my cast mates across the board. My mistake was
believing I could correct a wrong with honesty and
sincerity,'' he said in the interview posted online
Thursday.
''My mistake was
thinking black people get second chances. I was wrong on
all fronts,'' he said.
His unwillingness
to act like a submissive black at work was part of the
problem, Washington said.
''Well, it didn't
help me on the set that I was a black man who wasn't a
mush-mouth Negro walking around with his head in his hands
all the time. I didn't speak like I'd just left the
plantation and that can be a problem for people
sometime,'' he said.
''I had a person
in human resources tell me after this thing played out
that 'some people' were afraid of me around the studio. I
asked her why, because I'm a 6-foot-1, black man with
dark skin and who doesn't go around saying 'Yessah,
massa sir' and 'No sir, massa' to everyone?
''It's nuts when
your presence alone can just scare people, and that made
me a prime candidate to take the heat in a dysfunctional
family,'' he said.
The ABC network
declined comment Thursday. In its one public statement
regarding Washington, issued in January, the network said
his actions were ''unacceptable.''
Washington, who
used the slur against costar T.R. Knight during a
confrontation with Patrick Dempsey, repeated the word
backstage at the Golden Globes in January in denying
the first incident. A public apology to Knight and
others followed. (AP)
