My head is still spinning from all the people defending Smith. People I typically respect and who have opinions I nearly always agree with. Plus turning it into a racial thing is bizarre to me, and yes I understand the complexity of black women and hair, but it's not about the stupid joke, but about Will's reaction.…

The kinds of people endlessly posting about this meaningless event extend far beyond what you would consider to be a “Karen”. In fact the black twitter collective has dealt more than its fair share of useless hot takes that nobody asked for. If you want to recommend shows, great, but at least spare the world the obnoxi…

But a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear

I rewatched the full clip today and what struck me the most wasn’t the slap or Smith’s words. It’s that moment of silence after Smith speaks. No one says a word in reaction to altercation. No one gets up to check on the involved parties. Everyone laughs with relief when after that moment of shock, Rock states,…

Yes, he is obviously full of remorse.  All those pictures at the after-parties...his singing and dancing to “Gettin’ Jig Wit It” was filled with remorse.

He needed to be escorted from the theater. I can’t believe they let him stay after assaulting a presenter. 

Outside of the fact that it’s absolutely batshit (yet objectively great TV) that one grown man assaulted another grown man in the middle of a Hollywood awards show (assault, it’s never okay!)

I’m surprised how many people are defending Will Smith here. I’ve been married to a guy who liked to “throw hands” if someone disrespected me. It made me feel terrible and sick to my stomach any time he acted that way. I’d beg please just let it go! But no. He loved to escalate the situation.

This. It was scary, and my first thought was about what he’s like in private if this is how this escalated in public. 

It would have been an even better speech if he didn’t have to apologize for behaving like a caveman. He could have handled that situation very differently. It’s bad enough that Hollywood commonly portrays black men as impulsive and violent. Thanks to Will for making sure “art imitates life”.

Yeah let’s just normalize violent assault whenever someone can’t have a sense of humor about themselves.  Great take.

One thing I don’t agree with is that Smith resorted to physical violence.

Every awards ceremony either prompts a lot of hand-wringing over bad jokes or is boring. Wherever we land on Chris Rock, I think everyone who grew up around quick tempered grown-ups throwing hands over what they believe is a moral obligation collectively just thought, “If that’s what he does in public...”

Will’s best actor speech was delicious in its political savvy. Starting with “Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family” and then going on to say so much about the incident while only phrasing it as if he was talking about movies was just:

It was a shitty joke and in very poor taste; but Will’s reaction wasn’t acceptable either. Will could have taken the mic from Chris and turned this into a teachable moment by talking about how many people suffer in silence, praised his wife for speaking publicly about her challenges and helping to de-stigmatize…

That was dick move by Smith. Jesus, it was just a joke. There were a lot of people in that room who were targets of jokes, you didn’t see them get upset about it.

He’s a comedian. And Will thought it was funny (he laughed at the joke) until he probably saw that his wife wasn’t laughing. You’re saying physical assault is okay if you don’t like what someone says. This is absolutely ridiculous. You just wanted a “hot take” in writing as soon as possible.

I’m thinking Jez is either shutting down, or is changing staff. There have been so many writers leaving this year, and with the unresolved issues with Kinja, that it seems likely, to me, that this site is on its way out.  :(

“This is a true love story. Compassion, servitude, and resignation wrapped up together beautifully.”

This is a true love story. Compassion, servitude, and resignation wrapped up together beautifully.