Copy Editor: Cristian Velazquez
The internet exploded near the end of March when, during the 94th Academy Awards on live television, after Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s extremely short haircut while presenting an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, her husband Will Smith avenged her by getting up from his seat and striking Rock across the face with an open hand, then walking back to his seat without saying a word. Smith then continued to escalate by yelling profanities at Rock; making the auditorium gasp, fall silent, and leaving a disconcerted Rock to continue the award ceremony. Smith would win an Oscar for Best Actor about 45 minutes later; giving a tearful acceptance speech for over five minutes, where he apologized to the Academy and the award nominees, but not to Rock.
“I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people,” Smith said in contrast to his actions not even an hour prior.
“Art imitates life. I look like the crazy father, just like they said. I look like the crazy father just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things,” Smith said, referencing his character in the movie King Richard (2021) he won an Oscar for portraying. Rock made a similar connection before he was slapped. “Uh Oh! Richar…” Rock said laughing as Smith walked on stage.
I became aware of the incident the night it happened after looking at my phone before I went to bed, as is my bad habit. Going to school the next day, the meme had entranced the majority of the student body. I joked with my friends and laughed about it. People in the hallways were talking about it. People in my classes were talking about it. Two of my teachers discussed the incident with their class.
As teenagers, we can probably all relate to situations where an insecurity is agitated by someone, we act out emotionally in retaliation, and then suffer the consequences for our actions; penally and emotionally. Countless physical fights at schools follow this formula. A quote dubiously attributed to Benjamin Franklin rings ever-so true in cases like these: “Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.”
Smith has since posted an apology to Rock, the cast and crew of King Richard, and the Williams family on social media. He resigned from the Motion Picture Academy while awaiting his punishment from the organization, which was revealed last Friday to be a ten-year ban on attending Academy events. However, none of these acts can make up for the deep, dark shadow that Smith cast on his accomplishment and the accomplishments of others at the Academy Awards with his belligerence that night. His attempt to get even with Rock ended up having multiple negative repercussions that rippled across the Academy, the public, and his own career.
Many have come in support of Rock for enduring particularly humiliating unjustified violence; myself included. However, some believe that, regardless of Smith’s conduct, Rock’s joke was in extremely poor taste as Pinkett Smith has publicly stated she wears a shaved head, not purely as a style choice, but to conceal her hair loss condition.
“Jada, I love you. G. I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it, all right?” Rock said smiling; comparing Pinkett Smith’s haircut to the Demi Moore character’s haircut in G. I. Jane (1997), where Moore plays the fictional first woman Navy SEAL, Jordan O’Neill, who also sports a shaved head. Some of the audience, including Smith, laughed at the joke, but many audience members expressed shock and thought it went too far, and Pinkett Smith’s face immediately displayed disapproval. “It’s—that was a—that was a nice one!” Rock said after the joke before continuing his monologue.
While people may criticize Rock for making a dubiously dubbed “ableist” joke, It is actually Rock who suffers from a disability. In 2020, Rock revealed he was diagnosed with nonverbal learning disorder (NVLD), a neurodevelopmental disorder that hinders comprehension of nonverbal communication. Given this information and Rock’s body language at the time, one can reasonably infer then that he was not even aware that his person was in danger before the slap because Smith failed to give a verbal cue until after he attacked him.
I do not want to say that Jada Pinkett Smith should not have rolled her eyes and endured the joke. Despite what she has said about her haircut, she is not completely comfortable with her status as shaved-headed, and her feelings were hurt. If the Smiths did not want to take this sitting down, there were multiple options to address Rock’s transgression. They could have expressed their disapproval of the joke by giving a statement after the ceremony, incorporating a statement during Smith’s acceptance speech, leaving the ceremony, or all of the above; perhaps guilt-tripping Rock to make an apology later on and raising awareness for hair loss among women.
Talking about what could have happened that night won’t change what has already been done. But hopefully for Smith, and for us in our worst moments, we can recognize our mistakes, forgive, and look forward towards a brighter future.