Will Smith slapping Chris Rock after he made a joke at the expense of his wife Jada Pinkett Smith has been the biggest talking point of this year’s Oscar’s
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Black women were the real losers from Will Smith’s bout of toxic masculinity last night, denied their rightful place in the spotlight that they’d worked years to attain. The focus should have been on them and their achievements, now it’s on a man who couldn’t control his emotions.
As black women, we have to work even harder than black men to be taken seriously, always keeping our emotions in check to avoid the label of “angry black woman”. Think how Jada Pinkett Smith would have been crucified and cancelled had she stormed the stage. He, however, gets to slap, sob on stage and still sip champagne at after parties.
Aunjanue Ellis was nominated in Best Supporting Actress category for King Richard, yet her name was barely mentioned during the awards season campaigning. Nor did Smith, her Oscar-winning co-star, seek to amplify her voice. It appeared only the King mattered, not his on-screen queen.
Venus and Serena Williams, two of the greatest tennis players of all time, should have been celebrating a film about their father. Representation, as well as diversity, matters — yet here we have a film giving a positive image of a Black man and father, tarnished.
BeyonceÌ’s nomination for Best Song felt like a blink and miss it moment.
As for “get my wife’s name out of your mouth”, Jada Pinkett Smith has her own talk show, Red Table Talk, and is a successful and hard-working actress. Last night she was reduced to property by her husband. If he really wanted to defend her, he should have allowed her the space to decide how she wanted to respond or not to this “joke”.
Let's wheel back to 2016 when Will Smith didn’t get nominated for an Oscar for his role in Concussion. He felt “awkward” because it was an all white nominee list. He and Jada boycotted the show. There were calls for Chris Rock not to host it in solidarity. Instead, Chris called them out about it. That hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite, was mostly about him. Four years on and Chris’s quip directed at Jada brings the feud to a dramatic head.
Will Smith should be allowed to keep his Oscar, as a shiny, 13.5 inches high, 8.5 pound, solid bronze, 24-carat, gold-plated daily reminder of the adage, “Pride comes before a fall”. Forget Smith. Let’s keep amplifying the queens of King Richard and their work.
