Analysis of two WaPo opinion pieces on Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock

At the Oscars, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in reaction to Rock’s mockery of Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia.  The two op-eds below provide keen complementary commentary.  However, on one important point they conflict and one columnist is quite wrong.

First, Karen Attiah (1).  She makes great points concerning the complexity of being Black in a racist society.  She focuses on Will (and Black men) first, then Jada (and Black women). 

For instance:

It’s impossible not to notice that Smith attacked a smaller Black man. In the same situation, would he have taken the risk of slapping a larger, stronger guy, or a powerful White male celebrity who had made the same joke? I doubt it. And would Smith have gotten away with it — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said Monday it is investigating — if he hadn’t spent decades cultivating a nonthreatening, squeaky-clean image? I doubt that, too.

 

And an excerpt from the commentary on Jada, which focuses more on Black women in general:

 

What is undoubtedly true is that Hollywood loves to profit from showing the pain of Black women … how many Black women haven’t at some point wanted to slap someone for petting our hair? …

 

It is simply our social reality that Black women are the butt of endless cultural jokes, that we experience high levels of online abuse and domestic violence. Plus, a Black woman who forcefully defends herself will earn the label “aggressive” for her effort, especially in White spaces. These labelers are the same folks who will watch a Black woman being demeaned and later praise her restraint …

 

These are all crucial insights into the cultural mechanisms of oppression.  Attiah, however, goes on to criticize feminists.  This criticism appears in a terse paragraph, included below in full:

Some feminists have argued that Will “took away Jada’s power” in rushing to confront Rock. That’s not true here, either. Pinkett Smith is a successful, talented, powerful woman, but in that moment, how could she have accessed any of that?

 

Attiah’s argument here is glaringly bad.  Even if it were somehow true that Jada couldn’t have accessed her power in that moment,  Will still made the focus himself and interfered with her opportunity to frame the response as she wished.

It seems Attiah confuses two meanings of "power."  Power as general status versus power to shape the dialogue/reaction to a certain event.

Monica Hesse, in her op-ed (2), elaborates the argument about the man stealing power:  Smith denied Pinkett Smith a first reaction, whether immediate or delayed. 

Here are some excerpts:

The memorable image from Sunday’s Oscars will be Will Smith hitting Chris Rock. The memorable image should be Jada Pinkett Smith in her emerald-colored gown, keeping her fingers crossed and her hands to herself.

 This statement suggests Pinkett Smith did make an initial statement--through her body language--as a powerful woman in the moment.  But that statement was overridden by Smith’s behavior.

Hesse offers much insightful feminist analysis, such as:

Smith did not, from his seat, bellow, “Jada has alopecia, you monster!” He did not name his wife or her feelings at all. Instead, he referred to “my wife’s name.” Whether Smith meant to or not, he implied that Rock’s error was insulting a person under Smith’s purview. His decision to slap Rock centered on his own sense of honor and offense, not hers.

 As far as the slap itself:

Later using his acceptance speech to suggest that the slap was an act of spousal devotion only furthered a nasty trope of equating anger and affection. … Smith’s speech also — purposefully or not — folded the slap into a larger narrative of appropriate masculine behavior. He focused on the concept of “protection.” He said, “I’m being called on in my life to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people.” In the context of what had just happened, it almost sounded as though hitting Rock was in some way a righteous reaction, in tune with a higher calling.

 

Hesse takes a feminist approach.  Attiah considers the oppression of both Black men and women (in that order).  Attiah’s criticism of feminists, though, is awkward.  Her terse argument doesn’t hold water and is refuted in full by Hesse.

Attiah writes that racists “will watch a Black woman being demeaned and later praise her restraint.”  However, didn’t Will’s action make it look like Jada, whatever message she was sending  by sitting in her emerald gown with her fingers laced together, was merely exercising restraint?

 

 

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Notes:

 

(1)  https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/28/oscars-slap-will-smith-chris-rock-defending-black-women/

 

(2) https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/03/28/will-smith-jada-pinkett-slap-fallout/