“The most disrespected woman in America, is the Black woman. The most un-protected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America, is the Black woman.” — Malcolm X.
At only 14 years old, Emmett Till was killed after being accused of whistling at, or offending, a white woman in her family’s grocery store. The Black Wall Street massacre of 1921 began after a Black 19-year-old shoeshiner was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white elevator operator. The Rosewood massacre occurred after a white woman claimed she had been assaulted by a Black man. All of these were lies, of course, and just last year, 22-year-old Barry Washington, a Black man from Oregon, was shot and killed after paying a white woman a compliment.
Lives have been lost when white women are “offended,” but when a Black woman is offended, her husband is crucified for “defending” her.
At the 2022 Academy Awards, comedian and actor Chris Rock made fun of a bald Jada Pinkett Smith, calling her “G.I. Jada,” apparently not knowing that she suffered a hair loss disorder, alopecia. And while Rock thought it was funny, Pinkett Smith did not, and when her husband saw the pain in her eyes, he did what any man who loves his woman would do. Protect her.
Will Smith walked on stage, slapped the taste out of Rock’s mouth, then went back to his front row seat, leaving Rock stunned. Smith then shouted with force, “keep my wife’s name out of your fu$*ing mouth!”
For years, the “Everybody Hates Chris” creator has made Pinkett Smith the butt of his jokes. I guess Smith, compiled with everything else he’s been going through with his marriage being on display, just got fed up. We believe Rock got the message – leave Mrs. Smith alone.
So why is America so outraged?
To me, Rock using the “in the name of comedy” freedom of speech idea is a bogus excuse. We women deserve better – especially Black women – , and we applaud Smith for stepping up. Now granted, he could have done it in a different way and at a different time. We definitely don’t condone violence!
To the people who argue that Smith took us back a hundred years, I tell you, he has not. He stood up for the hundreds of years of suffering the Black woman has endured. And yes, it’s sad that, oftentimes, it’s from our own kind.
Many people are pointing out that Rock has made tasteless jokes aimed at Blacks for quite some time now.
In the days following the now infamous Oscar night, videos and interviews have been going viral of Rock seemingly putting down Blacks, with one particular clip showing him, Ricky Gervais and Louis C.K. throwing around the “N-Word” and mocking the wealth status of African Americans. The exchange clearly made legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld uncomfortable, prompting him to point out that use of the word was unnecessary.
Don’t get us wrong, even though we feel Rock was out of line making fun of another person’s medical condition, we do not believe Smith had the right to use violence. But we do need to point out that Smith is not the first celebrity to “act up” in public over a woman. Has everyone conveniently forgotten when another “Rock,” first name “Kidd,” punched Tommy Lee at the MTV VMA Awards over a beef that started over Pamela Anderson?
While Tommy says it wasn’t “over” Anderson, she was definitely the root cause, having been married to both men, which sparked a series of jabs and insults between the rockers which escalated into a public brawl during another Hollywood “night of excellence.”
So what’s the difference between that situation and the recent one?
Is it a case of men being men? The Oscars versus the VMAs? Or the skin color of the women whose honor is being protected?
The public scrutiny, the “investigation” and the threats of taking back Smith’s well-deserved Academy Award is just another example of “buck breaking,” which is what they did to strong Black men in the slave era.
Let’s set the record straight, no matter how people feel about the marital issues regarding the Smiths, Mrs. Smith was just as much a victim as Mr. Rock and she deserves to be protected.
There should be no double standard for protecting white women over our Black wives, mothers, daughters, etc. – period.
And while on public stage wearing tuxedos may not have been a good look, a fed up Will Smith apparently took a line out of Moneybagg Yo”s hit song, he “looked at his watch, and had time that day!”
On the serious side, for those of you who need a little more healing, PLEASE listen to Malcolm X’s words of empowerment and love for the Black woman.
You contradict yourself. Therefore, your words have no real value.
When you promote violence or negative confrontation into the situation it is always bad. To do it in a forum that’s being televised throughout the world makes it even worse. I see this several different ways. # 1 Jada was not being physically assaulted or battered. Believe me I believe in protecting family and maybe even friends under certain circumstances. This situation didn’t rise to that occasion. People offend people all the time and we may discuss the situation but we don’t take it to a level of violence. Then on the other hand many of us do. That’s why this situation is so bad. It send a bad impression. We can not handle every situation by assaulting someone. Was Jada mad at Chris for prior statements or jokes he said about them. There was away to express that behind the scenes. What they did was open them selves up for more jokes and ridicule. That joke would have passed and people would have forgotten about it. Now this is something that will follow them for along time. If Chris had walked up to Jada and put his hands on her or called her a name to her face then he would have all the rights in the world to physically defend her . That would have been expected. If he had tried to talk with Chris and Chris disrespected him by saying f off or kiss my a then that would have risen to him telling him to keep his wife’s name out his mouth. The situation that has come out of this was that this was rehersed and no one had issues with it before hand. I can understand the sensitives some women may have with feminine issues but Jada didn’t look bad at all. Matter of fact she looked stunning. If she had that problem with her condition then she should waited and allowed William to address it in a non violent way. I guarantee you that she would have got more positive feed back from fans and viewers. Chris would have been put on the defensive and had to apologize along with the Academy. This situation is so unfortunate. Jada’s selfishness and Will’s anger turned a great night into a spectical. Another thing I see that is wrong with this is Jada didn’t try to stop Will. Matter of fact she seemed to laugh at the situation. Was she really hurt or mad and got a kick out of the out come. Maybe she wanted to tarnish Will’s legacy. Maybe she is over their marriage and doesn’t care about him anymore. What if Chris had retaliated and Will got injured or Chris got injured from the slap. What if Chris had pressed charges or asked for Will to be removed. What Black people have to understand is who we really are and where we really come from. What our heritage and why our history has been erased throughout the world. As things evolve and the truth comes to light we will see that our legacy has more meaning now than ever before. Every day when you wake up and check the news there is Black on Black crime. Black men and women are dying in record numbers . We as a people need to see what’s going on. We are talking about defending a women’s honor for something so trivia when our people are dying in the streets every day. Will could have used his platform at the Oscar’s to speek about alopecia, poverty in America, or Black on Black crime. Those topics would have been great to put on the table. An actor of his stature would have gained the attention of some of those watching. This is really a missed opportunity for the betterment of society. What it has done is made it vogue to attack someone because because you don’t like what they say or wear. To our Black women remember that you to have an obligation to protect your or the Black man. If she had just reached across that table and grabbed his hand and said it’s ok ,stay here or stood up to stop Will I know things would have been much different. Now he has lost some control over his future. He has to Waite and see what going to happen to his career.