|
Further analysis of the Will Smith/Chris Rock Academy Awards Slap in the Face
Rick Garlikov The following in black font is attributed to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but I have no way to verify that. I am responding to the message, not the messenger, in blue font: "When Will Smith stormed [he didn't "storm" or rush the stage; he walked up there; even Chris Rock did not get into a defensive posture or step back and clearly thought Smith was just going to say something, not hit him] onto the Oscar stage to strike Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife's short hair, he did a lot more damage than just to Rock's face. With a single petulant blow [response to wrongdoing is not "petulance" even if the response itself is wrong], he advocated violence [no he didn't; one physical response in a particular case one mistakenly thinks is justified, is not "advocating violence"], diminished women [not really, but more about that below], insulted the entertainment industry [did the wrong thing, but I think "insulted" is the wrong word, perhaps 'embarrassed' or even 'harmed'], and perpetuated stereotypes about the Black community [-- only to those bigots who already harbor such stereotypes and who want to overgeneralize even further from one incident; in short, to people who would have and spread that stereotype anyway]. That's a lot to unpack. Let's
start with the facts: Rock made a reference to Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett
Smith, as looking like Demi Moore in 'G.I. Jane,' in which Moore had shaved her
head. Jada Pinkett Smith suffers from alopecia, which causes hair loss. Ok, I
can see where the Smiths might not have found that joke funny. [And
of all men, Chris Rock should have known that negative, even humorous,
comments about black women's hair is an off-limits, sensitive topic to
black women in American culture because he produced and starred in a
documentary about that in 2009: Good Hair.
As pointed out in that link, Rock even said on The Oprah Winfrey Show
"it's not important what's on top of your head—it's important
what's inside of your head. That is the theme of the movie." And
also in that link is this "It is reported many Black women took to
Twitter to reassess the film. One of the film's interviewees,
interior designer Sheila Bridges, who suffers from alopecia, criticized Rock for his joke about Pinkett Smith by saying “Shame on
you @chrisrock. Didn’t we sit down and talk at length about how
painfully humiliating and difficult it is to navigate life as a bald
woman in a society that is hair obsessed?”] But Hollywood
awards shows are traditionally a venue where much worse things have been said
about celebrities [maybe "worse" if meant
seriously, but not necessarily "worse" if meant as clever jokes that
everyone, including the subject of the joke, sees as intended to be
humorously affectionate -- 'insult humor' is an acceptable kind of humor
when understood as being affectionate ribbing pointing out harmless,
interesting human foibles] as a means of downplaying the fact that it's basically a
gathering of multimillionaires giving each other awards to boost business so
they can make even more money. [Chris
Rock's comment is neither justified nor excused by its not being the
worst thing he could have said nor by its not being the worst thing ever
or even typically said at an event, even if the event is in some way
put on for greedy self-promotion by an industry many people find
fascinating, whether it is a trivial industry or event or not, and
particularly when people enjoy seeing stars affectionately rib or chide
each other.
In this particular case, Chris Rock should not have said what he did and
should have apologized
for the offense immediately upon seeing Jada Pinkett Smith's reaction to
it. He was body-shaming (or hair-shaming) her appearance for a
cheap laugh, and it
was hurtful to her because she suffers from alopecia; plus he compounded
it by trying to excuse or justify
it the way you are here, by saying it was a light insult or poke and
implying he could have said worse, presumably about her character and
their marriage which is a Hollywood gossip topic. And it was after
that comment when Will Smith got up and walked toward the stage]. The Smiths could have reacted by politely
laughing along with the joke or by glowering angrily at Rock. I
think that would have been insufficient, and Jada had already done
that, which only prompted Rock to make the second, worse, comment just
mentioned. After Jada's facial expression, which he clearly saw,the proper response to her reaction should have been an
immediate apology for unintentionally and unexpectedly but obviously, offending
her -- not doubling down by implying there was a lot worse he could have said
about her. Instead, Smith
felt the need to get up in front of his industry peers and millions of people
around the world, hit [slap one time -- which doesn't make it right but also is not correctly characterized in this context as 'hitting'] another man [which implies punching or hitting hard enough in some way to do damage or knock a person down, or some such], then return to his seat to bellow: 'Keep my
wife's name out of your fucking mouth.' Twice. [Will
Smith did handle it wrong, and there was a better way to handle it, had
he had the presence of mind and the ability to think of it on the
spot. The proper response should have been
to walk up as he did but simply to give Rock a short, private
explanation about why the remarks deserve an immediate public apology,
by saying something like:
"Look, Chris, Jada's hair loss is a medical condition. Your joke hurt
her feelings and was a form of body-
shaming for a cheap laugh. It was inappropriate and hurtful. And there
was no need to add, after
you saw her reaction, that you could have said worse about her. So
please just apologize to her
publicly now for the unintended offenses, and let's all move on and have
a
good time tonight." The F-bombs were a wrong way to try to
rightfully get Chris Rock to see the justifiable moral outrage at the
hurtfulness of his remarks, and the extent of their hurtfulness, given
that Pinkett Smith's side eye and then the slap itself did not, of
course, already show Rock all
that. Unfortunately many people just tend to get their back up at
any expression of moral outrage, particularly one that shows anger and
is not just an explanation. Instead of being seen as an expression
of hurt and reasonable moral indignation and outrage at the improper
continued response to the earlier sign(s) of displeasure, the slap and
the cussing were taken by too many people just be a reflection of Smith
being unreasonably angry and out of control, rather than his
miscalculating how to properly make Rock aware of the persistent, even
growing, hurtfulness of his continuing to make light of the offense and
doubling down on it. Of course, some people also consider polite,
private
explanations to be condescending and also take offense at them.
But I
think Chris Rock would have reacted properly to the right explanation
delivered more privately at the foot of the stage. But Will Smith
was unable to muster the presence of mind to do it that way. He
thought the slap was necessary, but also he mistakenly thought an open
slap was minimal expression of justified moral outrage at the first two
remarks. Then when that didn't work, he escalated to the cussing
to express his indignation and try to get Rock to see the error of his
ways and apologize for them.] Some have romanticized Smith's
actions as that of a loving husband defending his wife. Comedian Tiffany
Haddish, who starred in the movie 'Girls Trip' with Pinkett Smith, praised
Smith's actions: '[F]or me, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen
because it made me believe that there are still men out there that love and
care about their women, their wives.' Actually, it was the opposite. [It was neither, actually -- to be explained shortly.] Smith's slap
was also a slap to women [not really]. If Rock had physically attacked Pinkett Smith,
Smith's intervention would have been welcome [but
the principle that justifies intervening is similar whether it is
verbal or physical; the problem here is that Smith's physical
intervention should have been verbal, not that he should not have
intervened. More about that shortly]. Or if he'd remained in his seat
and yelled his post-slap threat, that would have been unnecessary, but
understandable. [No, that would have been wrong
for a different reason; it needed to be done privately or quietly
individually with Chris Rock, not yelled out across the room and world,
because 1) it would have called even more attention to the alopecia or
other gossip, and 2) it would have been an unnecessary public calling
out of Chris Rock for just making a misjudgment about how his joke would
be taken by Pinkett Smith.] But by hitting Rock, he announced that his wife was incapable
of defending herself—against words. [No, this
is where Haddish and Jabbar both have it wrong. It didn't have to
be Will Smith who intervened, and probably would even have been better
had it been someone else for the same reason it was better for Jada not
to have commented or stood up for herself, but someone needed to let
Chris Rock know that he had overstepped and transgressed and that he
needed to apologize publicly immediately. This sort of thing is
normally better coming from someone with no personal stake in the game,
so that it does not seem merely to be self-serving, "defensive", or
petulant, when it is not any of those things. And that is why it
would have been even better for someone other than Will Smith to have
taken Chris Rock to task for the remarks.] From everything I'd seen of Pinkett Smith
over the years, she's a very capable, tough, smart woman who can
single-handedly take on a lame joke at the Academy Awards show. [And
she did, with the side eye, but that is where Chris Rock really
transgressed by doubling down, and in the specific way he did, to
indicate she could have deserved worse. Someone else needed to let
Chris know he was in the wrong, so it didn't become or seem to become
some sort of "pissing contest" -- competition for some sort of
superiority over some trivial skill or matter -- between Chris and
Jada. It is not about defending one's wife or a woman, about
standing up for an innocent person who is being attacked. Jabbar
is right that a verbal attack of that sort should not have a physical
response, but he is mistaken to think it does not need outside
intervention, and he and Haddish are bot mistaken to think that this
intervention by Will Smith was merely a husband/wife or man/woman sort
of intervention. It needed an objective outsider letting the
wrongdoer know of a mistake, not someone with a vested interest
intervening to protect his/her own interest. Had Will Smith
handled it the way I describe as the right way to have handled it, he
would have accomplished the 'objective outsider' component so that it
was not about being or seeming self-serving. Worse than the slap was Smith's tearful, self-serving acceptance speech in which he rambled on about all the women in the movie 'King Richard' that he's protected. Those who protect don't brag about it in front of 15 million people. They just do it and shut up. You don't do it as a movie promotion claiming how you're like the character you just won an award portraying. But, of course, the speech was about justifying his violence. First, any of those speeches seldom go well when extemporaneous, and the particular circumstances of the evening did not help make this one an exception. Will's state of mind was trying to come to grips with what he had done, and he was "thinking out loud" trying to do that in front of the world, which was unfortunate, and not likely to be successful or admirable. By apologizing to the Academy and his fellow actors, Smith showed he had at least halfway come to grips with what he had done wrong, but still didn't know a better way to have handled Chris Rock's transgression, which he correctly believed did need and deserve some sort of response to let Rock know he was in the wrong. At that point he was unable to give an apology to Rock because he could not yet put his finger on the distinction between Rock's wrongdoing and his own. Apparently, so many people need Smith's protection that occasionally it gets too much and someone needs to be smacked. [Not a fair characterization and unnecessary or inappropriate mockery.] What is the legacy of Smith's violence? He's brought back the Toxic Bro ideal of embracing Kobra Kai [sic; "Cobra Kai"] teachings of 'might makes right' and 'talk is for losers.' Let's not forget that this macho
John Wayne philosophy was expressed in two movies in which Wayne spanked grown
women to teach them a lesson. Young boys—especially Black boys—watching their
movie idol not just hit another man over a joke, but then justify it as him
being a superhero-like protector, are now much more prone to follow in his
childish footsteps. [That unreasonably
presumes young people, whether boys or not, whether black or not, cannot
distinguish between fiction and real life, which is not true for most
people who do not turn into Dirty Harry's or confuse violent video-games
with reality] Perhaps the saddest confirmation of this is the tweet from
Smith's child Jaden: 'And That’s How We Do It.' [Yes,
an unfortunate, inappropriate and wrong comment, but probably more from
being their son and also upset about the whole thing and still in the
moment than because he is young or black or can't distinguish right from
wrong or fiction from reality. And I presume Will Smith has
pointed out to his son that he handled it incorrectly and it is not how
"he should have done it".] The Black community also takes a
direct hit from Smith. One of the main talking points from those supporting the
systemic racism in America is characterizing Blacks as more prone to violence
and less able to control their emotions. [Racists
don't need an excuse or supposed evidence to support their
racism. Look at Trump's characterization of Ketanji Brown
Jackson's patient answering of disrespectful GOP questioning as her
being the one who was disrespectful because she clearly had to gather
herself and remain calm and matter of fact in the face of such
mistreatment. Instead of praising her for her restraint, he
criticized her for what he called 'disdain' for having to work a bit to
exercise restraint and answer their questions seriously. (And of
course it is understandable that Trump would not understand the concept
of self-restraint in the first place, let alone recognize when it was
practiced or applied.) Misogynists and
racists don't need excuses; and they can't recognize evidence when it
smacks them in the face; pun intended] Smith just gave comfort to the enemy
by providing them with the perfect optics they were dreaming of [optics
that were evidence only to other racists. No one else saw that
and seriously said "oh, that's just the way n--s, I mean 'black people',
behave." Non-bigots don't think or say such things, and they do not
countenance people who do.]. Many will be
reinvigorated to continue their campaign to marginalize African Americans and
others through voter suppression campaign. [only
because they think African Americans vote predominantly Democratic;
they do hate African Americans, but the voter suppression stuff is more
political than racist. If blacks voted Republican, they would not
be targeted for voter suppression or anything that would cost
Republicans votes.] As for the damage to show
business, Smith's violence is an implied threat to all comedians who now have
to worry that an edgy or insulting joke might be met with violence. Good thing Don Rickles, Bill
Burr, or Ricky Gervais weren't there. As comedian Kathy Griffin tweeted: 'Now
we all have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith in comedy clubs
and theaters.' The one bright note is that Chris Rock, clearly stunned, managed
to handle the moment with grace and maturity --
not sufficient to apologize to Jada, as he should have; though clearly
he still had not seen anything wrong with his joke, though he should
have. Part of what made Will Smith's response wrong was not only
that it was physical but that it failed to get Chris Rock to see his
mistake because it was only physical. If only Smith's acceptance speech
had shown similar grace and maturity—and included, instead of self-aggrandizing
excuses, a heartfelt apology to Rock." [At
most, Rock deserved only an apology for hitting him, not an apology for
confronting him, because Chris Rock had not yet been recognized his
wrongdoing or had or shown any remorse for it.] … PS Will did apologize today or
last night to Chris…….. [He correctly
apologizes for being physical, but also correctly did not apologize for
confronting Chris Rock, whom as far as I know has not apologized for,
nor regretted his remark toward Jada. He should know better.
And I like both men. I am not choosing Will Smith over Chris Rock
in this; both did the wrong thing, but the right thing would have been
for someone to point out Chris had overstepped and was body-shaming or physical-appearance-shaming
someone who did not deserve it, and Will could rightly have done that,
but he wrongly used the slap instead. But, to make the same error
that Chris made in his second remark, Will could have done worse -- and
punched or beat him, which does not condone what he did but explains it
is not a capital offense that would have deserved banishment, just as
Chris's remarks neither deserve to be condoned nor for him to be
smacked, punched, or beaten. There should probably be some penalty or self-imposed atonement
for the slap, but any external punishment needs to be proportionate to the offense, not
disproportionate or merely punitive without being informative in the way
his slap of Chris Rock and his F-bombs at him were not informative.] [Plus
some people criticize the Academy and others for not intervening in the
fight or for not punishing Will Smith immediately by ejecting him
afterwards, but 1) there was no "fight" to stop. Smith slapped him
and turned and walked away. There was no need to separate the two
or pull Will Smith off from beating or attacking him. 2) I think
ejection was uncalled for and would have been too heavy handed (again,
pun intended), though some sort of private admonition and ethics advice
about the best way to move forward for both of them, separately or
together, would have been the right way to deal with it, just as I think
it would have been the right way for Will to have dealt with
Chris. But this was really as shockingly difficult a problem for
the Academy to resolve in the moment as it was for Will Smith to figure out how to
resolve in the moment. The Academy did not know how to handle it
and, given the lack of moral philosophy education and of meaningful
intelligent public discussion of ethical issues there is in America
today, it is no wonder they did
not deal correctly with a morally complex issue where a wrong was done
in response to another wrong, though both wrongs were relatively 'light'
compared with what they could have been, and it was all playing out
live in front of a viewing audience.]
|