Chris Rock Was Wrong

Okayokayokay. That doesn’t mean that I think Will Smith’s response was right.  This isn’t an either-or where we should pick one person out as being right and the other wrong.  Both were wrong, with Chris Rock being the instigator.

I love movies (some more than others) and look forward to the Academy Awards each year.  2022 was no different.  What seems to be the major event of this year’s ceremony is not the actors, directors, etc., that received awards, but the slap that Will Smith gave to Chris Rock.

What I’ve notice since the slap is that many are supporting Chris Rock.  That’s okay if they think he is a victim.  What’s not okay is having double standards.  This is what I mean …

Chris was on stage to present an Oscar winner when he took time to joke first and said to actress Jada Pickette-Smith,

“Jada, I love you. GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see you,”

Jada Pinkett-Smith

Pinkett Smith announced she had shaved her head last year after being diagnosed with alopecia.  She did not shave her head to play a movie role.  Jada was not in the 1997 movie “GI Jane”.   In that film, actress Demi Moore shaved her head to play the role.

Jada shaved her head because of a medical condition. That is why it’s my position that Chris Rock was disrespectful, degrading, and flat-out wrong.

 

In 2012, Kathy Bates was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy.  In 2011, actress/comedian and Oscar host Wanda Sykes had a double mastectomy for breast cancer.

For those who think that the G.I. Jane comment directed to Jada by Rock was just a joke, what if Rock said to Sykes that he couldn’t wait to see her in “Misery 2” when breasts are “hoppled”?  Would that have been just a joke? 

Will Smith gave a statement saying;

“Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally.”

You see, Will Smith saw that joke to be about Jada’s medical condition.  I did too, immediately after Rock delivered it.  It was wrong for Smith to respond with physical violence, and he has stated as much. Logically, Will knows what Jada has been through and is going through with alopecia.  It’s no joke.

It is never okay to joke about the medical condition of another of others.  Will Smith has apologized for his behavior.  It’s beyond time for Chris Rock to apologize for his insulting, disrespectful joke because of Jada’s medical condition.  He owes Jada and the Smith family an apology.  In fact, he owes everyone with alopecia an apology.