The annual Oscars movie awards have just passed.
I think back to the #OscarsSoWhite movement, asking for the 'competition' to not only contain white people.
The Oscars nominees in 2014.
Has anything changed since then?
Yes, more non-white film workers are nominated. But the change was made by regular people.
A few hours ago, this happened.
https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1508270716063469576
When I woke up and saw this video, I felt two things:
- Will Smith is going to win an award after this abuse.
- This is abuse.
Now, in patriarchal society, a 'man' is expected to suck up a punch. Move on. Speak for your wife. Nothing more. You punched? Say 'sorry' and go on.
What I described in the paragraph above this one is naturally destructive behaviour. So, what happened?
Chris Rock was on stage and joked about Jada Pinkett Smith's alopecia. It's a medical condition that causes hair loss. It's a harsh joke, but trust me, all of Rock's jokes have been vetted and edited long before they were aired. In other words, they were approved by the Oscars people.
Will Smith reacted to this joke, not by asking his wife what she thought. He raced up to Rock and physically abused him.
All were shocked as Smith returned to his seat and twice shouted the same thing at Rock, who seemed somewhat able to keep his composure.
The only thing the Oscars people did about this was censor this segment from viewers, except in Asia and Australia.
Nothing happened to Will Smith. Nothing.
If this happened in another context, things would have happened.
If an audience member jumped up and decided to smack another person because they felt their significant other had been insulted, there would be repercussions.
If I were to feel offended by how the Oscars people handled this and then physically abused the chairperson of the Oscars awards show, I'd probably be apprehended by the police and sentenced for it. Rightly so.
In this case, the Oscars people knew Smith would win an Oscar award, so they did nothing. They might blame their inaction on the fact that Rock has not wanted to press charges on Smith, but that's wrong.
What happened was abuse, and if you don't do anything about it, especially when you're responsible for handling security at the event, you're despicable.
https://twitter.com/bexlewis361/status/1508277297618448392
Think about this tweet.
The Oscars people have actively told the media to not ask winners about anything outside of their 'win'.
Again, disgusting, censoring behaviour.
When Smith picked up his award for best actor, he said '[...] love will make you do crazy things' and apologised to the Oscars people.
And to no-one else.
The Oscars people have communicated this about the violence:
The Academy does not condone violence of any form. Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy awards winners, who deserve this moment of recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world.
Mmm. We don't condone violence of any form.
But we choose to do nothing about it, except to award the perpetrator.
Imagine this in another setting:
A person is committing a crime and is, red–handed, seen by police in the act. Instead of arresting the person, the police decide to let them be and hand them the Outstanding Citizen of the Year award.
Does this strike you as strange? It should. It should strike us all as insane behaviour.
I can't at all speak for any of these people, but if I were in Jada Pinkett Smith's shoes, I'd be livid against my husband. Who the fuck does he think he is, getting up and physically abusing another person for joking?
By the way, we're talking about Chris Rock. This joke is not out of his regular comedic dressage.
But, Will Smith took umbrage.
When he won an award, he said he wants to be a 'vessel of love'.
https://twitter.com/Cary_Elwes/status/1508288029227581443
Saying that you are what you've proven not to be, is very bad. At the least, it proves you're a liar.
The Oscars people are abominable for not handling this properly. For now, it seems they've gone from discriminating Black people to allowing a Black man to get physically abused on prime time. What's up for next year? Having Oscars winners publicly flay Black people?