Will Smith

Re: david lyga (Post 7214932)
I said you were incredibly verbose.

Most people agree the slap shouldn’t have happened. But there’s something that feels precious at best, and downright racist at worst, about white people’s reaction to the now-infamous smack. The Hollywood director Judd Apatow declared in a deleted tweet that Smith “could have killed” Rock (seriously?), calling it “​​pure out of control rage and violence”. Apatow later confirmed he wasn’t even watching the show when he made the remarks. The radio host Howard Stern compared Smith to Donald Trump, while white women on Twitter somehow decided that Smith’s actions meant he must be beating his wife. It would seem that there’s a layer of hyper-violence that’s being projected on to Smith simply because he is a Black man who was defending his Black wife.

While it’s justifiable – important, even – to interrogate his motives for delivering the slap (was this really all about defending his wife or more about his own ego?), it’s clear that the backlash against Smith is rooted in not just anti-Blackness, but respectability politics as well.

It’s also not just about what Smith did; it’s where he did it and who was watching. Anyone who has been following these shows can see that Smith is being held up to much stricter standards than white men who have behaved just as badly or even worse in those settings. In 1973, John Wayne had to be restrained by six security guards when he tried to rush the stage and attack the Native American actor and activist Sacheen Littlefeather. Littlefeather was on stage to accept the best actor award on behalf of Marlon Brando, who was boycotting the awards in protest at Hollywood’s depictions of Native Americans.

Wayne got to keep his awards after the incident, but pending a review, Smith could very well have his historic best actor win revoked. Mind you, this is the same academy that gave Roman Polanski an award in absentia after he pleaded guilty to a charge of unlawful sex with a minor and fled the country before he could be sentenced. The double standard is glaring.

Actually, maybe I'm missing something, but all he said was, "Jada, I love you... GI Jane 2 (or part 2)...can't wait to see it." I don't think it was necessarily a slam at her or her alopecia, if he was even aware of that - many women are going bald these days for some reason - you see them everywhere. Anyway, I didn't take it that way (not that I watched the Oscars - had to look it up)... I took it as a compliment that she looked great. How was that hateful? Maybe if he knew, but do we know he did?

Mame wrote:

Actually, maybe I'm missing something, but all he said was, "Jada, I love you... GI Jane 2 (or part 2)...can't wait to see it." I don't think it was necessarily a slam at her or her alopecia, if he was even aware of that - many women are going bald these days for some reason - you see them everywhere. Anyway, I didn't take it that way (not that I watched the Oscars - had to look it up)... I took it as a compliment that she looked great. How was that hateful? Maybe if he knew, but do we know he did?

You would not compliment someone in a joke - it was poking fun at someone that was bald - we don't know for 100% if he knew however, she had announced it and seeing he is in the celebrity world it would be reasonable to assume he knew about it.

But to me it was not a matter of whether Chris Rock knew or not knew or meant or did not mean to be hurtful - it was that his joke fell flat and was hurtful to Jada. I do not think Rock meant to be hurtful - but the end result was - it was. And that is why I said he probably feels bad about it now - especially as I doubt he meant it that way.

Anyway, it's over - tempest in a teapot.