That Oscars Slap Though — What it says about our society

This is fascinating…

This is fascinating. I am utterly fascinated by this whole Academy Awards slapping situation. The joke was so ... and he really got up and ... seriously, it’s been a storm of opinions. There’s a lot of mess (for lack of a worse word) going on in the world right now, and this is just another one. As a ‘90s baby, Will Smith and Chris Rock have been some of the coolest and most impactful entertainers throughout my life. I usually don’t write about this type of thing — but, man, watching that happen at the Oscars live was like an out-of-body experience.

Look, a lot of people have voiced strong opinions on it. Facts are both of them will be endlessly criticized, but … both will get a boost in publicity for it too. I’m not here to call out a winner or a saint. Though what really fascinates me is how there are so many angles and trajectories we could break down what happened. It’s like this uncomfortable mirror show reflecting our world.

So, Will Smith “slapped the s*** out of” Chris Rock over Jada. That had some things to say about our culture and society. Let’s get into it.

Let’s Get Slappy

First I want to tap on some themes that surround the act itself.

What better way to start than talking about ... race!

The three parties involved were black Americans, it’s true. Now, maybe this is just me, but in black American culture there is this practice known as roasting or “bagging”. Basically, talking trash. It’s very common and almost like a sport, especially for young black people, to bag on each other or joke about each other. I don’t want to generalize, but this is part of a large section of the community. Similar to most comedy shows, anything goes. You get roasted for your height, your weight, your face, your gender, your mom — I know, what’s she got to do with this?

I'd like to mention that roasting is obviously not a uniquely “black” thing. In fact, it's a huge part of the humor culture in this country.

People love to point out the flaws in others, including comedians.

The best are able to do it about themselves and still make us laugh. But that's another story.

Jimmy Kimmel made an interesting point about how it’s almost a tradition to roast famous people at the Oscars as a way to kick some of the most popular people in the world off their high horses. Just a little bit. I’d take it a step further.

Many Americans do and have pride in making fun of elite figures, the government and politicians — we’ve been making fun of our own presidents since forever.

These people are the cream of the crop, rich and famous, and that’s why people like to talk smack about them. Americans have always criticized those with power or status, and it won’t stop anytime soon.

So what? People like to roast. Bringing it back to race a bit, I just want to mention the issue of black entertainment. This POV is important because the black community has especially divided opinions on the slap. Black people in America, despite being about 17% or so of the population, have a huge representation in global entertainment. That's not the issue, I'm just saying.

Being a relatively small minority, black people in entertainment tend to keep up with each other, something like a community. As noted, Chris does start the joke by saying, “Jada, I love you”, tells the joke, then looks at Will as if to make sure it was “ok”.

With this proximity can come trust, love and anger, as you’d expect from any family.

The act was problematic to many black people since historically blacks have been stereotyped as loud, violent, and impulsive. Another point is that Chris Rock’s joke touched on an issue about women, particularly black women. Now we can mostly agree that women have been measured throughout film and advertising based on their physical appearance. This has been a big topic around the world, how a hot model on screen can be used to influence a product’s selling potential.

Beyond the usual objectification of women’s appearances, black women have had specific struggles due to having different facial features, hair types and skin color than America’s vastly white majority.

That’s part of why joking about a black woman’s physique, especially her hair, can be really sensitive.

Ready, Set… React

Alright, we unpacked a lot surrounding the smacking incident. What about the reactions to it? Everybody and their momma have had an opinion on this (sorry, not trying to roast ya). Surprise! Reactions also reveal some things about our society. The most support from what I can tell is for Jada Pinkett Smith. Why, though?

Well, everyone who knows anything about the slap has heard that Jada has alopecia, a physical condition. A lot of the support for her has been based on the defense of people with physical conditions.

Much of the culture in American media has been shifting toward defending those who have physical or mental conditions, as well as anything we could deem a disprivilege.

The actual language has been changed to make sure that affected groups do not get offended. Really, to protect people from being bullied based on qualities they can’t control, like physical appearance or sexual preference. I haven’t kept up with it all, but just know a lot of words you could say on TV ten years ago, you can’t say now.

This has been known as “cancel culture” and people have mixed feelings about it. Some view it as admirable to make sure people aren’t made fun of to the point of shaming them. Depression and suicide are serious epidemics in the U.S., so it makes sense. On the other hand, it brings up the issue of freedom of speech.

Many reactions have been and will be about the ol' FOS, especially from comedians.

From my understanding, comedians have been worried sick about how the mentioned “cancel culture” has affected their ability to make jokes, no matter how outlandish they may be.

These days, lots of people are heated up about freedom of expression and choice, which have always been important in America and have only ignited since the Trump presidency and Covid. A lot of the support for Chris Rock has leaned in this direction.

There’s also the feminist direction — by which I mean, not any organization of feminism but the philosophy — by which I mean, feminism is not a monolith and there are so many ways this slap situation is being analyzed from the feminist perspective.

One argument in support of the female, Jada, is how women don’t deserve to be offended about their looks, especially in public, especially because of those things we talked about earlier (blackness, female objectification, etc.).

In a lot of ways, this curiously moves to justify Will Smith’s slapping of Chris as an act of defense for his wife, his family, and their honor.

It touches on the idea that we as people, a nation, and black people as a race should be lifting each other up as opposed to putting each other down; the idea that men should be defending women.

Some criticism about the female involved has been about open relationships and infidelity. Say what you want, the U.S. is a largely religious or otherwise tradition-based society, especially in that Bible Belt. A huge part of the country doesn't quite vibe with open relationships or cheating, and a lot of controversy has stemmed around the idea of publicity.

That is, famous people making their lives super public, and becoming popular and more wealthy from it.

There are obvious problems with this, like the emotional toll it takes on the public figures. Sure they agree to the lifestyle, but any human can only take so much bashing from strangers on social media and in public settings.

Okay.

Another view of the female, Jada, has to do with women being capable of fighting their own battles.

In essence, this goes in hand with the idea that women are as capable as men and do not need a man to stand up for them. It’s part of a certain class of women empowerment, but also sheds light on the idea of toxic masculinity, or that men can at times perform “hyper-masculine” behavior in order to achieve something they think is right from their male perspective.

There’s also this culture of excitement that comes from seeing acts of violence or otherwise uninhibited acts taken in public. It resembles a spectacle or showdown.

Many people, men especially, are taught to reinforce their strength by physical dominance, and are sometimes celebrated for it.

This celebration can be both from men who maintain a tough persona and women who are glad to see a man take control of the situation. We have to remember some of the top sports in America are violent and involve striking a ball or person, for that matter. And sure, there’s a culture that is invested in making these sports less severe on the athletes or getting rid of the violent ones altogether.

From the machismo side of things, we can see support for Will’s “love tap”, agreeing how a real man will do what‘s necessary to defend his family. Then there’s Chris’s side, where the support reflects a man who holds back and keeps his composure under duress. It’s very reminiscent of a karate movie or something. There’s always the crew that wants to learn martial arts to beat up their enemies. Then there’s the group that learns so they don’t have to use it.

In short, there’s power in defending one’s family in front of the world when stakes are highest, and there’s power in concealing one’s emotions and keeping control in a stormy situation.

And the Winner Is…

So that’s what I mean, peeps! For me, there’s no right or wrong, no winner or loser here. Well, they both lost but they’ll both gain from it as well.

I admire the bravery in both Will and Chris.

I’m not bold enough to get on stage in front of millions of people and make risky jokes I know might be taken offensively, especially knowing the climate of my country’s media. I’m also not bold enough (even though I love to think I’d be!) to get up and slap someone on live TV in front of millions of viewers for making fun of my wife. Chris could’ve called my wife and my momma a baldheaded granny and I wouldn’t have had the courage to slap him like that (not on stage at least). I’m just not that guy.

(Although, if I’d had some run-ins with the comedian before, who knows what I’d be capable of.)

That's the point though. This conflict, however awkward, was between these specific people in this specific setting. Chris has said things about Jada (and everybody else) in the past. Jada has this condition which she's likely been struggling to accept. Will's been facing tons of jokes and criticism for his personality and their relationship. The dynamic between these three people is highly unique.

Will and Jada have both been criticized and laughed at. They usually take it lightly. Oscar night just wasn't the right night.

Okay, that’s it! I’ve been obsessed with this topic for days. I wrote about it. Hopefully, I can move on now. What’s your opinion? Is it still messing with your head? Or have you moved on to new things?

Neboh writes poetry and stories too…

☮️!