If Chris Rock & Will Smith Had Pimped Slapped Patriarchy Instead by Stephane Dunn

If Chris Rock & Will Smith Had Pimped Slapped Patriarchy Instead

by Stephane Dunn | @DrStephaneDunn | NewBlackMan (in Exile)

Of course, Will Smith shouldn’t have hit Chris Rock anywhere – certainly not from the Oscar stage.  So why did he? He was in another kind of role, one he wasn’t consciously aware of and one far more emotional and complex than any of his movie roles: The son retroactively defending his mom, the husband defending his wife, and “real” Hip Hop brother from Philly defending his manhood.

Chris Rock verbally violated Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith no doubt. This was more than residue from Rock’s 2016 Oscar host jab at Pinkett Smith for the Oscars So White boycott call. No, when a man talks up under a woman’s hair, a Black woman’s hair at that, and one who has lost her hair due to a medical condition, and does so publicly – he’s done fighting words kind of  trash talking. Unfortunately, Will Smith did so literally and forgot something as Pinkett- Smith tensed by his side at Rock’s comment. He’s not that young, middle class rapper from Philly sensitive about street-cred, not the child watching his mother be abused by his father. He’s a megastar who was at the fanciest, most overblown, elite awards show of the year at that. 

We’ve seen celebrity men “posture” on social media with twitter becoming the new “ street”or diss on wax where men insult each other’s masculinity, often through  explicit language aimed at each other’s significant others.  Kanye West’s recent twitter tirades against ex Kim Kardashian and boyfriend Pete Davidson and Trevor Noah is the extreme representation of what goes on all the time in social media between high profile men posturing against one another. 

Every since the Smiths’ marital business became front and center, compliments of the young man who had a relationship with Pinkett Smith during a previously undisclosed marital break, celebrity Black colleagues have been coming for Smith, mostly in the most sexist terms due to a perceived lack of  “control” over his wife and marriage. The couple tried honesty, publicly talking about their individual and relationship evolution. 

But the social media hate intensified, especially towards Pinkett Smith with petitions aimed at ending their TMI (too much information sharing in public), jokes about their supposed  “open” marriage and Will’s manhood and sexist slurs flung at Pinkett Smith. . For the most part, Will Smith seemed to laugh it off and respond as usual with a smile or chuckle as if it was all harmless signifying and he wasn’t bothered. He and Jada chatted about their relationship like close, loving friends on her successful Red Table Talk Facebook show and individually in interviews. Will  discussed it in his book, Will and during promotional talks. 

However, as the buzz on his performance in King Richard grew, there were signs that the public shaming and constant scrutiny was becoming too much. Smith continued to promote the film as award season took off and articulate the emotional toll his father’s  abuse of his mother had taken, but his perceived unusual relationship with Pinkett Smith still took center stage There was that Red Carpet moment with comedian-actress Leslie Jones. 

Meanwhile, Pinkett Smith opened up in dramatic public fashion about a painful personal emotional and physical battle with alopecia, which made her hair fall out. She shaved her head bald with the support of daughter Willow, freeing herself from the secrecy and seemingly some of the angst. But hair loss issues aren’t a laughing matter. Pinkett Smith slayed the red carpet alongside her husband throughout the awards season with her shaved head, accentuated by bold dresses, dazzling like the only accessory needed. Until Chris Rock’s GI Joe 2 joke. Pinkett Smith’s face and posture said it all. Rock had taken her back to the pain of her hair condition and momentarily stomped on her burgeoning new joy. 

Will Smith felt and saw it. The whole  emotional roller coaster ride of their life in the media and the public, the private demons that Smith shared he still grappled with - not being able to protect his mother from abuse, reared up at the most inopportune and emotional moment. Smith snapped and the result was slapping Chris Rock on the Oscar stage. It was not the way to protect Smith’s manhood, his wife, or become the savior he wished he could have been way back for his mother when he was growing up.

As an Oscar winner for best actor, a confused Smith spoke of Denzel Washington’s warning to him, when you’re at your highest, the devil comes for you. The “devil” in this case can be named. It’s the emotional and mental vulnerability in men that still registers as odd against the codes of manhood and masculinity; it’s the posturing that we’ve seen too much of,erupt into violence both in movies and real life. This would not be the Oscar 2022 talk if Chris Rock had dissed patriarchy instead, and both he and Will were pimp-slapping it together.

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Stephane Dunn, PhD. l MOREHOUSE COLLEGE l Writer, Filmmaker, Professor

Cinema, Television & Emerging Media Studies (CTEMS)