All eyes were on South Africa in June 1986, as the United States House of Representatives agreed to sanctions designed to topple the country’s oppressive system of racial apartheid. Much less attention was given to the conviction of a 15-year-old in Boston for pelting Black children with rocks and shouting ‘kill the n****r! kill the n****r!’
Little attention was paid when the same teenager, nearly two years later, knocked out a Vietnamese man – who he called a ‘Vietnam f***ing s***’ – with a five-foot stick, under the influence of PCP.
And little attention was paid when the same man was charged with attempted murder and jailed after pleading guilty to felony assault after punching a Vietnamese-American in the face later that day.
But nearly forty years later, the story has come back to bite actor Mark Wahlberg, now 51, following his presentation of a Screen and Actors Guild (SAG) award to the mostly Asian cast of ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ on Sunday.
Mark Wahlberg grew up the youngest of nine in the neighborhood of Dorchester, Boston
Mark Wahlberg is pictured with his mother in a photo shared by the actor on Instagram
Wahlberg was born 5 June 1971 in Boston, Massachusetts. He grew up around the working class neighborhood of Dorchester, the youngest of nine children. His parents divorced when he was young and by the age of 13 he was addicted to cocaine.
The star of ‘Shooter’ dropped out of high school a year later at the age of only 14 (he would later earn his diploma at the age of 42, hoping to set a better example for his children) and struggled with drug use, theft and petty crime until his arrest at 16.
It was ultimately music that removed Wahlberg from this world, helped along by the success of older brother Donnie Wahlberg. But it took some time for the young artist to mature.
1992 was a busy year for Mark, then in his 20s. In August, he attacked a neighbor reportedly ‘without provocation or cause’, kicking the victim in the face and jaw while another man held him down. In December, he appeared on British TV show The Word and praised dancehall musician Shabba Ranks, who had said gay people should be crucified.
Later that year he published a memoir, ‘Marky Mark’, which he opened: ‘I wanna dedicate this book to my d**k.’
An adult Wahlberg admitted there were a few things he regretted from his youth. In a 2006 interview, he said he was no longer burdened by guilt for attacking the middle-aged Vietnamese American Johnny Trinh, who he punched in the eye in 1988.
‘I did a lot of things that I regretted and I certainly paid for my mistakes,’ Wahlberg told ABC News at the time.
‘You have to go and ask for forgiveness and it wasn’t until I really started doing good and doing right, by other people as well as myself, that I really started to feel that guilt go away.
‘So I don’t have a problem going to sleep at night. I feel good when I wake up in the morning.’
Then singer Marky Mark pictured on 13 October 1991 in Chicago, Illinois
Mark Wahlberg speaks onstage during the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at Fairmont Century Plaza on February 26, 2023 in Los Angeles, California
The stories feel far-removed from Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, the Boston-based hip-hop group led by Wahlberg that formed in 1991 and reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 the same year with ‘Good Vibrations’.
They feel worlds away from the actor Mark Wahlberg who carved out an illustrious acting career following his debut role in TV’s ‘The Substitute’ in 1993. After appearing in a slew of films through the 1990s, the actor built a reputation from working on remakes of the ‘Planet of the Apes’, ‘Charade’ and ‘The Italian Job’.
As he approached 40, the actor said he planned to retire to focus on parenthood, but instead went on to start in Ted and its sequel, Lone Survivor in 2013, The Gambler in 2014 and Patriots Day in 2016. By 2017, he topped the list of the world’s best-paid actors.
Thing were going well for the actor.
But the controversy flared up again in 2014 when he looked to have his criminal record expunged. A judge denied the application, citing the seriousness of the crime and the harm caused. An Asian Activist Group led protests against the appeal.
This was another turning point for the actor, who later said he regretted the decision.
‘I didn’t need that,’ he admitted. ‘I spent 28 years righting the wrong. I didn’t need a piece of paper to acknowledge it. I was kind of pushed into doing it, I certainly didn’t need to or want to relive that stuff over again.’
The actor had said in his pardon application: ‘I am deeply sorry for the actions that I took on the night of April 8, 1988, as well as for any lasting damage that I may have caused the victims.
‘Since that time, I have dedicated myself to becoming a better person and citizen so that I can be a role model to my children and others.’
Some good came of the protests, with Wahlberg able to make amends with Trinh.
‘I was able to meet with him and his wife and his daughter and apologize for those horrific acts,’ he said.
The actor has gone on to atone for his past, contributing to the betterment of the lives of inner city children through the Mark Wahlberg Youth Foundation since 2001.
In a pithy statement in 2014, he wrote: ‘I have not engaged in philanthropic efforts in order to make people forget about my past.
‘To the contrary, I want people to remember my past so that I can serve as an example of how lives can be turned around and how people can be redeemed.’
