(ThyBlackMan.com) The much ballyhooed and awaited appearance by comedian Chris Rock at a theater in Baltimore finally happened fittingly the week before the Academy Awards show. The timing for Rock’s appearance was almost carefully arranged to tie in with the awards ceremony. One year earlier Rock and actor Will Smith staged the spectacle that shocked tens of millions of viewers. The spectacle has since gone down in the lore as “the slap.” That was Smith’s physical attack on Rock for allegedly telling a bad taste joke about Smith’s wife. Smith was banned from this year’s academy awards show, suffered a momentary hit to his career and rep, and became a pariah to many for his rash act. He has apologized a dozen different ways for his act to Rock, to no avail.
Rock, for his part, said next to nothing about it for almost a year. Now with his disjointed comments on a Baltimore stage that’s changed. But irrespective of his pithy comments about the “slap.” There’s still a larger issue that is pregnant with takeaways. They go far beyond just the juvenile, enraged, momentary act of Smith.
In that one dumb and embarrassing split-second, Smith and Rock managed to reinforce a couple of the worst stereotypes about Black males. First Rock, he stepped way over the line poking fun at Smith’s wife’s hair. Hair is one of the most sensitive, touchy, emotional issues among women, especially Black women. That’s because of the long history of racial ridicule of Black hair as nappy, ugly, kinky, ugly, and abhorrent. Rock reinforced that stereotype.
Now Smith. His public slap of Rock for the insult, reinforced the long-standing stereotype of the malevolent impulsive, violent, out of control, even thug image of Black males. What’s worse, these aren’t just any two Black guys on the street or in the hood. But two of the wealthiest, most successful, publicly visible Black men around.
In that ugly moment, they transformed themselves into America’s racial bad boys—again. It’s the shortest of short steps to think that Smith can be depicted as a caricature of the terrifying image that much of the public still harbors about young and not so young Black males, then that image seems real, even more terrifying, and the consequences are just as dangerous.
This insidious stereotype was not lost on many Blacks. They burned up Facebook and other social media outlets lambasting Smith for reinforcing the thug image typecast of Black men. They have not and won’t forgive him for that. So unforgiving, that many said they’d boycott his film Emancipation and anything else he’s associated with. One year, the anger against him in some circles remains unyielding.
Many thought that former President Obama’s two-term tenure in the White House buried finally negative racial typecasting and the perennial threat racial stereotypes posed to the safety and well-being of Black males. It did no such thing. Immediately after Obama’s election teams of researchers from several major universities found that many of the old stereotypes about poverty and crime and Blacks remained just as frozen in time. The study found that much of the public still perceived those most likely to commit crimes are Black. It also showed that once the stereotype is planted, it’s virtually impossible to root out. That’s hardly new either.
The police murder of George Floyd, the countless number of other dubious shootings by police of Black males, and the current crime surge that invariably many believe come with a Black face reinforces the perception that crime and violence in America invariably come with a Black male face. It doesn’t much matter how prominent, wealthy, or celebrated the Black is. The overkill frenzy feeding on the criminal or borderline criminal antics of a litany of Black NFL and NBA stars, which run afoul of the law or are poorly behaved, and of course, everyone’s favorite stomping boy, the rappers, and hip-hop artists, further implant the negative image of Black males. None of them, like Smith and Rock, are hardly poor, downtrodden, ghetto dwelling young Black males.
Neither Smith nor Rock really committed any crime that will land them in a courtroom and the only one who Smith really hurt in the eyes of some is the fantasy image of him as the Simon-pure entertainer/actor. But again, in that dumb, embarrassing moment, Smith and Rock represented not the best but the worst of us.
But the worst of the rage is still aimed at Smith. Rock has not accepted Smith’s apology one year later. Many Blacks cheer him on for his refusal. This speaks volumes for the age we live in that one incident, one time, one place, can cause so many to draw a hard and fast line in the sand. It’s called division and polarization. That has become the new norm in America. Smith and Rock in their way typify that.
Written By Earl Ofari Hutchinson
Feel free to connect with him through twitter; http://twitter.com/earlhutchins
He is also an associate editor of New America Media. His forthcoming book is From King to Obama: Witness to a Turbulent History (Middle Passage Press).
One of the many lessons I’ve learned is not make public jokes about a person’s sick loved one. learned There’s power of peace in being respectful to others at all times, even when it’s a situation where you need to address something foul. Lesson two, to be thankful everyday that others respect the loved ones of others. Wrath is provoked when we see a loved one offended, especially in front of others for the entertainment of others. Targeting another person’s loved one when they struggle with a medical condition is not cool. I watched Mr. Smith laugh as the joke at first too, but the look on his wife’s face may have been a trigger to him in that moment. What else could he have done? Get up and walk out with his wife, sit there and scowl at the joker, etc.? Anything he would have done would have been used to judge him and his wife as bad actors, ” unable to take a joke”.
Reading and listening to many of the comments on the issue, all sound negatively self righteous and judgmental toward Mr. Smith and his wife. Mr. Rock may have felt comfortable making another man’s wife’s medical condition a prop for his joke. What we can learn it’s not respectful or safe for anyone’s loved ones. We can learn respect at all times for all people makes our society the safest place us, our families, and communities. If Mrs. Smith was sitting for a roast and he made the joke, and Mr. Smith reacted that way, he would be more deserving judgment for such a reaction. That was not the case. We can learn empathy, let them work it out. The best thing Mr. Rock could have done on his special was apologize for offending Mr. And Mrs.Smith by making light of her medical condition. Mrs. Smith, and by proxy Mr. Smith, was the victim, not Mr. Rock as he was correct about not wanting to be a victim. He wasn’t the primary. And, observe how rare African American women who are hurt verbally and emotionally get sympathy and empathy from this society we they’re offended or hurt.
Mr. Rock apologizing to Mrs. Smith would have helped society put it all in perspective and also learn the importance of respect for the medical conditions many Americans struggle with, especially women, our women. Granted, there are comedians that make belly tightening jokes about their own loved ones and their own medical conditions. That’s a different story though. Unfortunately, it appeared Mr. Rock went on the attack against Mrs. Smith, again, showing society our women don’t get a break or compassion when they are offended or hurt. I could go on, but just felt the need to show there are human beings who learn to be better human beings from the mistakes of others.
will smith was on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah giving some handy dandy sort of what I think he thought was an explanation of something in another dimension. It certainly had nothing to do with that prick behaving like a schoolyard bully and hitting somebody over a joke he was laughing at two seconds previously…that is until his “wife” turned him into her bitch and smith struck a Presenter on the Oscars Awards and then sat down and enjoyed the rest of the show with apparently no guilt, won an Oscar, and wasn’t escorted out by Security in that building.
But please, I must ask two things:
1. Was smith in some sort of competition to say “you know” as many times as he could in a certain amount of time? By the way will smith, no, I don’t “know”…why don’t you ‘splain it to me?
2. I hear that there’s a Million Dollar prize for the first person who can correctly guess what the hell smith was babbling about in that “interview”. I don’t know what was in that word salad that smith was tossing, but it certainly had nothing to do with smacking Chris Rock. Hmmm, maybe smith was trying to explain his “wife’s” entanglement.
As a black man myself, I’ll tell you. We as a people, on the whole, have learned nothing as usual.
Hello “Vader007”,
I fully agree with you, except for one thing…..don’t blame Black People, it’s human beings as a whole that just can’t grasp the concept of learning anything anymore. Learning requires work, and too many of today’s people, whatever color, can’t be bothered do the homework, they would rather just blame the other guy. I wish you well my friend.
p.s. I’m a 65 year old white guy. (play your choice of ominous music here).
I’ll tell you what we learned. We learned that wil smith is a p*ssy.
Let’s forget this “what a man would do”, and “defending his wife” and all those other hollow excuses. wil smith was plain and simple….a bully.
When you watch those snippets of film, and all that was said during and after, the main fact shown is that wil smith is NOT a man. He has not reached that level in the game of life yet. There’s a big difference between saying the word “man” and being a “man”. I don’t care what he thought was said, done or thrown at JPS…a person, a human being, a “man”…does NOT get up out of his seat at the Oscars ceremony and strike a comedian because he didn’t like a joke. A joke I might add that he was laughing at two seconds earlier.
The answer here is not what have we learned, but rather what has smith learned. He needs to learn how to live with common sense in this society of ours. He needs to learn that he’s no longer in the third grade and intends to “offer out” another school kid, he needs to learn that if he has a problem with something that he imagines wronged him or his family that he should be responsible and speak to that person alone…..and get the FULL and CORRECT story from the person that just told a joke.A joke, which is what wil smith is in society these days. Grow up smith.