The Two Americas Debating Will Smith and Chris Rock [View all]

[DemocratSinceBirth]

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I was on an overnight flight from Los Angeles to New York City during the Academy Awards, so at first I didn’t see the Will Smith–Chris Rock fiasco that sent America into a complete tizzy. But when I was finally able to turn on my cellphone, I had 653 text messages.

Six hundred and fifty-three.

By now, you’ve probably seen multiple videos and angles of Smith slapping Rock. Right before the comedian presented the Oscar for Best Documentary, Rock joked offhand that he was looking forward to seeing Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, in G.I. Jane 2. Rock was referring to Jada’s bald head. The problem with the joke is that Jada has been open about having alopecia, an autoimmune disorder that commonly results in significant hair loss. When the cameras panned to her, her expression showed that she was not at all pleased with Rock’s barb. Moments later, Smith walked onstage and smacked Rock in the face.

While I was on the plane, my group-text threads exploded with a lot of jokes, and a lot of stunned reactions. Most of my 653 texts, I should note, came from Black folks. A lot of them, both men and women, said they at least understood Will Smith’s fierce reaction to Rock’s mockery of his wife, even if they disagreed with how and where Smith showed it.


What has developed since that unforgettable moment at the Oscars is a classic “two Americas” conversation. By that I mean: Black people and white people aren’t necessarily talking about the incident in the same way. That much was evident in the celebrity reaction. Tiffany Haddish, a Black actor and comedian who starred with Jada Pinkett Smith in the blockbuster movie Girls Trip, told People: “When I saw a Black man stand up for his wife, that meant so much to me.” To my eyes, Black commentators were more willing to joke about the incident—perhaps because, as Will Packer, the television and film megaproducer who oversaw the Oscars broadcast, tweeted after the show, “Black people have a defiant spirit of laughter when it comes to dealing with pain because there has been so much of it.”


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https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/03/two-americas-debating-will-smith-chris-rock-oscars-slap/629407/

Chris shouldn't have disrespected his wife and Will shouldn't have slapped him. What should be the response? Mercy is part and parcel of justice. The social sanctions have been enough for both gentlemen.