It's seemed somehow that every possible reaction to the Will Smith incident has already been aired.
during the live broadcast of the Academy Awards. Smith swiftly moved toward Chris Rock, who made the mistake of telling a joke that compared the buzzed head of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith, to that of Demi Moore’s in the movieBefore anyone could make sense of what was happening, Smith stood before Rock and landed a theatrical slap to the side of the comedian’s face.
to inject a little life into the annual tedium of the Oscars. But then the TV cameras followed Smith back to his seat, where he twice yelled at Rock: “Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!”That was enough to make it clear, to me at least, that this was real. Will Smith broke character in about as dramatic a fashion as anyone could have imagined. Not the character he was about to win Best Actor for—that character he would soon invite comparisons to.
” video. Later during his acceptance speech, Smith tried his damndest to explain himself without really explaining what happened, making an awkward and not quite apt analogy to the man he portrayed inIt has seemed somehow, in the not yet full day since Sunday night, that every possible reaction to the incident has already been aired.
Unsurprisingly, the social media response has followed its own inevitable arc, from shocked to bemused to serious to exhausting. As a sports fan who has seen scenes like this play out umpteen times, I’ve felt the familiar dread of watching relatively minor transgressions by Black men turn into a vehicle for everyone’s agendas. We can’t even gawk at a little scuffle without worrying that it’ll become a referendum on Black male anger. There was no real harm, and we don’t have to call a foul.