Wendell Pierce, the actor best known for playing Detective William “Bunk” Moreland on HBO’s The Wire, has never been known to mince words. Today was no exception. Pierce took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to deliver a harsh rebuke of White House chief of staff John Kelly’s ahistorical and bigoted comments about the Civil War.
In a Monday-night interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, Kelly, a former general, called Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee “an honorable man who gave up his country to fight for his state,” and added, “Men and women of good faith on both sides made their stand where their conscience had them make their stand.”
He also said that a “lack of an ability to compromise” caused the Civil War.
Kelly’s comments have been roundly criticized for the racist, ahistorical filth they are, but Pierce got personal with the general.
“While they raped my Grandmother, lynched my Uncle, broke up my family to lost history, you find honor & compromise in that, you racist prick?” Pierce tweeted, along with a link to an article detailing Kelly’s comments.
I mean, where’s the lie?
Pierce also posted a video of Col. Ty Seidule, a history professor at West Point, that had gone viral in 2015. In it, Seidule makes it very clear that the Civil War was about preserving slavery.
“John Kelly, this is an officer and a gentleman,” Pierce wrote. “Take note: Watch and learn.”
The 52-year-old New Orleans native is no stranger to political discourse—or to not pulling punches, for that matter. During last year’s presidential campaign season, Pierce got into a physical altercation with a couple of Bernie Sanders supporters following an argument about politics (Pierce was supporting Hillary Clinton). Pierce has also used his platform as an artist to highlight social issues and to effect change, helping to build homes in New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina and helping to fill the city’s food deserts.