This week, Will Smith — perhaps the most bankable star of his generation — won an Oscar for Best Actor for “King Richard.” But that wasn’t why he made headlines. He made headlines because during the Academy Awards ceremony, comedian Chris Rock told a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Jada, it seems, suffers from alopecia; Rock, presumably not knowing about her condition, made a joke about her starring in “G.I. Jane 2,” a nod to her closely shaven head. Initially, Will Smith laughed. Then he glanced around and saw Jada was upset.
At which point he got up, strode to the stage, and proceeded to slap Rock directly across the face.
Then he sat down again.
Rock, for his part, tried to play off the situation as a joke. But Will Smith wasn’t letting it go. Instead, he began screaming at Rock: “Keep my wife’s name out ya f—-ing mouth!” Rock replied, “Wow, dude, it was a ‘G.I. Jane’ joke.” To which Smith repeated, screaming, “Keep my wife’s name out ya f—-ing mouth!” Which, presumably, would make Rock the first man to whom Smith had ever uttered such a sentiment, given the couple’s stated dedication to their open marriage.
Suffice it to say, it was perhaps the oddest incident in nationally televised history. The only rivals might have been Justin Timberlake ripping off Janet Jackson’s top to reveal a pasty at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show, or the live OJ Simpson car chase during the NBA Finals. But this event was even odder, given the utterly sudden nature of the assault. Rock, after all, was hired to lightly roast actors. Will Smith was there to pick up his first Oscar. And the whole thing devolved into actual violence.
It’s easy to brush off the event as yet another disposably silly celebrity moment. It would be easier if Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., hadn’t immediately tweeted (and then deleted), “Thank you #WillSmith Shout out to all the husbands who defend their wives living with alopecia in the face of daily ignorance & insults.” Or if Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., hadn’t tweeted, “Teachable Moment: Don’t joke about a Black Woman’s hair.” Or if the entire Academy Awards audience hadn’t given Smith a standing ovation a few moments later. Or if there hadn’t been widespread support for Smith’s slap online, thanks to the now-common belief that verbal insults constitute a form of violence to which violence is an acceptable — indeed, commendable — response.
The social compact by which verbiage and violence remain strictly separated is a delicate one. For most of human history, words were treated as punishable by physical response — dueling was commonplace in societies for centuries, familial retaliation for insult was regular, and wars were even fought over verbal slights. But over time, civilized people traded away the privilege of personal use of force in favor of rules; truly offensive words could sometimes meet with social disapproval or even ostracization, but certainly not violence.
Now we seem to be reversing the trend. The entire theory of “microaggressions” suggests that if you are offended, it is because someone has “aggressed” against you — and aggression requires response. To deny someone’s preferred pronouns is now an act of “erasure” amounting to violence, since the person so slighted might feel damaged in their sense of worth or authenticity. Once we reconnect the severed link between words and violence, civilization will begin to break down.
We can hope that Will Smith’s slap remains an aberration; a country in which comedians are regularly assaulted for making jokes will soon be a rather humorless place. But unless Americans are willing to reestablish the hard barrier between words and violence, we will become a far more silent and far more violent nation.
Ben Shapiro, 38, is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers “How To Destroy America In Three Easy Steps,” “The Right Side Of History,” and “Bullies.” To find out more about Ben Shapiro and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
The oddest was probably the streaker behind David Niven as he made a presentation at the Pscars years ago! The media must be SLAP-happy because who really cares. We’re talking about Hollywood, a place built on fiction and artifice, a haven for liberals who insult over half the country when they try to make political rhetoric into jokes that aren’t particularly funny. Enough, already!
Well, seeing how many news reports we’ve had, just over the past 2 years, of blacks just BEING VIOLENT for violence sake, its not that ‘news worthy to me’..
What rock should have had the balls, to SLAP HIM BACK!
You can take the man out of the Ghetto, but you apparently cannot take the Ghetto out of the man. Bear this in mind when you seek to elevate emotionally Damaged American goods to the highest Courts in the land, and just watch as like emotionally blubbering Will Smith, every assault on American innocence never even gets arrested to put to trial in even more unhanded discrimination against law and order prevails over reason, peace and sanity. If that was Mel Gibson defending his wife or daughter slapping a black comedian, he would have immediately been arrested to never again see the light of day or freedom. This is the so-called Privileged Equity of the false equality this Democrat party of emotional criminals has to offer, where their own privileged class is protected and immune from prosecution. Wake up and smell the coffee America or learn to duck and dodge a lot faster than Chris, when the bad guys come to get their self-entitled piece of the Rock.
AND you can bet, had he slapped a WHITE presenter, there’d not even BE MUCH news about it!
The Hollywood version of speech control and censorship.
How dare Chris Rock insult a floozie. If you’re so concerned about your wife, Will, you might want to shorten her leash.
These days, it seems the leesh is on the MAN in the marriage..
Any white actor who did that would’ve been booed off the stage, arrested, and banned from Hollywood for life.
But this was a famous black actor, so rules and laws are out the window, and he gets a standing ovation moments later from all the other Hollywood fruitcakes.
Par for the course nowadays.
I would rather be forced to spend 2 hours in WalMart than listen to this nonsense about what happen at the Academy Awards night…………..