I honestly don't know how I feel about the Oscars incident. Chris Rock made an absolutely cruel, tasteless joke at a woman's expense.
People say: "But Will and Jada were laughing at it too!"
You can laugh at something until the real meaning of what they said hits you. It can be a delayed reaction. And I can imagine the very real humiliation and pain Jada felt at being the butt of that joke. And who among us hasn't been ready to do battle on behalf of a loved one? Hell, I remember close to 20 years ago when someone tried to pick an actual physical altercation with The Husband until I jumped in and told them to try picking on someone their own size.... (Because they were only a little taller than me.)
That said, slapping Rock onstage at the Oscars in front of a global audience was NOT a good idea. Shout him down, yes. Go up there and commandeer the mic a la Kanye and Taylor Swift to explain why the joke was tasteless, sure. But violence? And now it's all anyone's talking about. Not Questlove's win immediately afterwards, not Will Smith's best actor award. The Slap.
I think Will's reaction to the joke is part of a larger picture of how on edge we all are. People are out of grace to give others.
A couple of other points -- 1. People are talking about Will and Jada's open marriage and making comments about how Will didn't stop another man from sleeping with his wife. "Cuck" is even a trending topic on Twitter.
Look, some of you aren't familiar with polyam or open relationships, and it shows. What they agree on int he confines of THEIR RELATIONSHIP is up to them. Furthermore, this REEKS of misogyny. If it came out that Will slept with some 20 year old, people would just shrug and go on with their lives. But Jada does it and now people talk about her like she is Will's property? Somehow he's looked down upon because they have an open marriage? Bullshit.
2 -- Black Women's hair is a topic that is emotionally charged and fraught with symbolism. There is no safe space for it in our current society. Black women have to deal with a lot of crap regarding their natural hair.
As a white woman, I know how I feel about my hair. I would be devastated if it started falling out. And that's without the added complex layers that go with being a black woman in a white dominated society.
Chris Rock should have known better. He produced a damn film about Black hair. And he took a cheap shot at a Black woman with a medical condition that caused her to lose her hair. That joke probably caused actual, physical pain. Jada's eyeroll was far better than my reaction would have been. I would have been humiliated and in tears.
Jada's acting skills and long history of dealing with crap gave her a good edge in letting it seemingly flow off her back with a shrug and an eyeroll. But there is no way that Chris Rock didn't know what he was doing or how badly it would sting. And he got stung back.
My final thought:
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More and more, I think I'm #TeamWill in this one