My Opinion on That "Oscar Slap"

And why it's more about the rich and powerful than the rest of us

It's been over a week! And the whole incident still seems like it's personal and none of my business. At first, I tried not to have an opinion on this issue: Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on the 2022 Oscars stage. I tried all kinds of denial techniques: This is not happening. Don't I have more important things to worry about right now? None of this logical thinking seemed to matter. As someone who teaches scientific ethics to high school students during the summers, I thought about the behaviors I witnessed and how they might qualify, such as what it means to do "no harm." However, I discovered a viewpoint rattling around in my mind.

These are rich people's problems!

The Oscars consist of extraordinarily wealthy individuals from an elite group, voted into an academy, who are coming together during the global Covid-19 pandemic to sit close together, not wearing masks, while attending an Award's show in their diamonds, couture evening gowns, and tuxedos worth tens of thousands of dollars to congratulate themselves and one another while barely acknowledging a war raging on the edge of Europe that could inevitably impact the entire globe. However, most important is that they are happy, even content. So, of course, the greatest shock of the night is the "slap."

What's so significant about what we witnessed between Chris Rock and Will Smith? Well, both Will and Chris are wealthy, too. And the one thing that I have noticed with the #metoo movement and cancel culture is that instead of driving people back into their unethical closets of horror, it seems to make them more robust in their unsultry behaviors. I believe that wealthy and powerful individuals, albeit unconsciously, want to test the limits of their power, to know how far they can "push the button" before they are called out or canned.

That's what I saw: I saw Will Smith push this envelope as well as Chris Rock. I didn't see Will defending his wife so much (versus defending her “honor”), as I saw him testing the reigns of the power (albeit subconsciously) that he's developed as a wealthy Hollywood elite over the past few weeks. And Chris, as we know, has publicly made fun of someone else's wife, namely Jada, before this incident. The question is whether it was appropriate for Chris to be so personal in his attack during an event that would celebrate a potentially new Oscar winner, a colleague, and a member of this elite Academy — and he was attacking the man’s wife. Note that Chris was much more gracious in his jokes towards the Bardems, and Penelope Cruz in particular.

For "King Richard," Will has won a Screen Actor's Guild, BAFTA, Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, and NAACP Image Awards, to name a few. Conceivably, he was already a changed man when he walked onto the Oscar red carpet on March 27, 2022. I cannot presume to know what went through his mind. But he was no longer simply a member of the Academy; he was on the precipice of becoming a "head honcho," moving closer to the top of the leader board in this organization. And probably gaining a lot of political power, whatever this means, in exclusive circles, the likes of which everyday folks can only dream.

Did Will Smith self-sabotage? I have no idea, but I think that wealthy and powerful people do not seem to operate the same as everyone else (think about the "Inventing Anna" chick who only pretended to be rich!). And I think it is dangerous to presume that we know the private details of his marriage to Jada, his wife of over twenty years, based on what we have read in celebrity online magazines or heard via commentators on television. And even his book, "Will," is likely the carefully crafted archetypal presentation of himself, a more personable "Mr. Smith," that he wants to hand to the public, which is presumably the same with any celebrity autobiography aided by ghost-writing and carefully expert editing and proofreading.— and that is precisely my point.

So, often, I feel that as a consumer of social media and its by-products, I have assumed to own more knowledge than I truly have. I feel as though I know my friends, family, and colleagues less via online visual (re)presentation than before. We craft who we want to be online, including what kind of individual, ethical or otherwise, moral or whatever, we want others to see. If anything, these digital spaces give individuals places to hide, shadows in which people can provide illusions of their true selves, including who they would like to be. Most likely, most won't have to "face the music" unless someone else reveals evidence of them being genuinely fraudulent. And also evidence of them being truly fraudulent in a way that makes it harmful to others.

Wealthy people have more resources!

Those with more power and networking can cast more shadows than most. I do not think we will ever know what really happened between Chris Rock and Will Smith, only what we saw. We do not know these individuals beyond their bios and public, online personas. We do not understand the nature of their relationship with one another. I believe that Chris Rock may have a better ability to recover publicly, as a comedian, in a way that Will Smith could not as an actor. Comedians have to be ready for an "on-demand" performance because no matter how long and intensely they have practiced their jokes, they have to endure an unpredictable audience and be prepared to keep going no matter what. Actors of a different kind, like Will Smith, must perfect their craft and be ready to present it in a specified context, often with direction from others. Their ability to adapt may be at odds with their experience as an actor — and it all depends on how they get into character.

On Oscars night, both Chris Rock and Will Smith were in the roles of wealthy, powerful men. They are both African American and one can be more flexible in his performance as the comedian, while the other is expected to stick to the script, as the actor— and as one of the (almost) newly-appointed Hollywood elite. Mr. Rock was given the task of handing over the reins of power but not without a jab or two, appearing in the role of a court jester because everything is supposed to be 'light' and 'fun.' Chris used his role to test his own power, especially among the Hollywood elite, something that he constantly does as a comedian. Whether or not, it was personal, between the two of them, is something we will never know. And Mr. Smith was expected to calmly and humbly accept his sceptre, and step onto his small but stately throne, for his role as the 'Fresh Prince.' Did they fail?

Chris Rock did not seem to know how to 'flex,' personally, to meet this occasion because he was contending with an angry but well-known and powerful heckler. He was afraid that he had gone too far and in a way that appeared to touch him deeply. So, he went back to his scripted jokes. Will Smith forgot his role entirely. At best, his 'flex' was all about himself, with all context and pretence lost because he was too far gone in his emotions. He was not humble until he was verbally chastised by his peers (and, at home, we did not witness all of the retributions, admonishments, and conversations that took place after the slap and before he came back on stage to accept his Oscar). Anyway, their Court (of actors and peers in the audience) applauded the gesture of Will Smith receiving his crown, albeit now dented with the shame of a poor showing of 'passing the baton,’ which seemed to be the most important aspect of the stately ceremony or the only way they seemed to care about.

If anything, I learned the Court of public opinion seems to be multi-layered for those in power: dealing with their peers as well as those more powerful than themselves in their peer group who must decide who gets what (for example, academy membership or stripping of an Oscar), versus how the whole business looks to social media celebrity consumers — the people, Us! Regarding ethics, the decision-making on how everything is handled regarding this incident will not likely be transparent, although I'm sure the rallying cry will be to "do no harm" to the Oscars itself.