I don’t care about Chris Rock. I love Jada Pinkett-Smith. But this isn’t about them. I’m not debating about right or wrong or “entanglements”, or blaming a wife for her husband’s actions or pontificating on someone’s mental health or emotional well-being. Enough has been said about that lame ass “joke”, and miss me with the “I’m so traumatized” nonsense. What’s going on in the Ukraine right now is traumatizing. Seeing someone get b*tch-slapped is startling, yes, but if you watched any season of “The Real Housewives…”, you’re not that fragile. You’ll live. This is about Oscar winner, Willard Carroll Smith Jr. aka Will Smith. PeriodT!
Now that I got that out of the way, let me start by saying — I hate that this happened. This is an irrevocable stain on what, until now, has been a relatively spotless career. It was supposed to be Will’s Big Night. The one he worked so hard for. So to see him come out of character like that, on live TV no less, is so… sad, disappointing, surprising, shocking, upsetting… but I get it! In that slap was 30 plus years of pent up anger, hurt, hostility, embarrassment, humiliation, the endless blogs and tabloids coming for his wife, his kids, speculation about his sexuality… *sigh*! Everyone has a breaking point and that was his. Was it at the wrong time and place? Absolutely! But since it did happen, would it have been better if it went down backstage? In the parking lot? In a dressing room? Or worse, if it was at the BET or NAACP Image awards and not the Oscars? (That’s a whole other conversation for another day…)
Will Smith as a Black man in show business, or just in America for that matter, isn’t afforded the luxury to make errors like this. Not on this scale. Although over the years many of his white counterparts have had various run-ins with fans, paparazzi and other celebrities which landed them in trouble, most managed to bounce back. But the rules are always different for us. We know that. He knows that. Which is why of ALL people you don’t expect this kind of behavior from him. Not Our Will Smith! Someone who, until recently, had a pretty impeccable reputation. So to see it in one moment pretty much go down the drain, for lack of a better word, sucks.
To say his career probably will never be the same again is an understatement. The ripple effect has already begun. Deals he had in the works have been pulled, projects are now on hold indefinitely and who knows what further backlash is to come. I don’t believe in “cancel culture,” it’s about accountability for me and it seems he’s trying to do what he can to make it right and move past this, but people are determined not to let it go:
He didn’t apologize that night, he was wrong for that…
Well if I’m so pissed off that I walk up on a stage and slap the taste out of somebody’s mouth, I’m probably not gonna be that sorry about it 20 minutes later. And if he said it nobody would’ve believed it anyway.
He went to the after party like nothing happened…
I equate that to a kid staying out way past their curfew; if you know you’re already in trouble you might as well hang around and enjoy yourself. In the back of Will’s mind he had to be thinking, “who knows if I’ll ever be here again.” Especially after what went down. So why not ‘get jiggy wit it’ and drink up all these fancy people’s good champagne?
He releases a statement the next day, it’s not sincere enough…
It’s called damage control. Will Smith is a brand, and that was ‘his people’ trying to get ahead of the situation, but by then not even Olivia Pope could undo “the slap heard around the world.”
He resigns from the Academy, apologizes AGAIN, but it’s too little too late…
What more do you want this man to do, draw blood? I swear I’ve seen more false outrage over this incident than the insurrection on January 6th!
What gets me the most are the bottom feeder has-beens and never-will-be’s who have all crawled out from a ROCK trying to get their 15 minutes of fame by inserting themselves in the story. Or the click bait headlines coming from “insiders” or “sources” who are just making a coin off of it while they can.
If there’s any lesson to take away from this entire fiasco, besides remembering to take a beat before you react, it’s Denzel’s words to Will that he quoted in his acceptance speech:
“At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you”!
I’d also add to that, in moments like this you learn real quick who your REAL friends are, and if you’re Black & you mess up, They will never let you forget it.
But hey, that’s just my #UnpopularOpinion!
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