“The day after slapping Chris Rock on the Oscars stage and upending the 94th Academy Awards, Will Smith issued an apology to the comedian, to the academy and to viewers at home, saying he was ‘out of line’ and that his actions are ‘not indicative of the man I want to be.’” AP News
Many on both sides condemn Smith’s actions:
“If the assault had been done by a player during an NBA or NFL game, he might have been suspended or fined for fighting. Instead Smith was allowed to walk back to his seat. Then he won the Oscar for lead actor for his portrayal of the demanding father of tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams in the movie ‘King Richard.’ Smith used his moment onstage — this time legitimately invited up — for a tearful, self-indulgent speech about how, like the man he portrayed on screen, he, too, has to defend his family. So that’s the lesson Smith took from Richard Williams — that hitting someone for making an offensive comment is defending your family?”
Editorial Board, Los Angeles Times
“‘The Academy does not condone violence of any form,’ the official Oscars account tweeted after the show. But they do condone it. They’ve showered awards on characters like Roman Polanski, whose crime is a matter of public record, and on Harvey Weinstein, whose predations were an open secret in the industry before the law caught up to him. There’s an actual genocide going on in China yet the American film industry goes out of its way not to offend the perpetrators of it lest they lose access to the Chinese box office…
“In fact, less than an hour after Smith had slapped Rock in the face onstage in full view of millions of people, the Academy handed him the Oscar for Best Actor… Why was he still in the building? If the Academy doesn’t condone violence, he should have been escorted to the door. If he were a lesser-known actor I think he would have been. But he’s one of the 10 most bankable actors in Hollywood, and so the lesson of Weinstein was repeated last night. As a famous man once said: When you’re a star, they let you do it.”
Allahpundit, Hot Air
Other opinions below.
“About five weeks earlier, we had another prominent figure turn an event into an embarrassing spectacle. That was Juwan Howard, the head coach of the Michigan Wolverines, who took a swing at a Wisconsin assistant coach. Howard was upset Wisconsin called a timeout when the game was out of reach (ignoring the fact he was running a full-court press while the game was out of reach). When Wisconsin Head Coach Greg Gard tried to explain this to him, Howard turned the handshake line into a scuffle…
“Kindergarteners have to be taught not to fight each other on the playground because someone was mean to them. Juwan Howard is 49. Will Smith is 53. No amount of semantic quibbles about punches and open-hand slaps or ‘defending your wife’s honor’ from a mean joke can ever justify what Howard and Smith did.”
Zachary Faria, Washington Examiner
“Whatever one thinks about the quality of Rock’s joke or his decision to go there, Smith’s action is in no way justifiable. If you’re at an event where a comedian is telling jokes, you have to accept the fact that he may say something that you find offensive, and there’s an off chance it will be directed at you…
“This is even more the case when it’s an event where a lot of the jokes, by nature, involve teasing members of the celebrity audience. In this context, it is not akin to being at a bar and hitting somebody talking about your wife. It’s closer to losing money at the blackjack table and slugging the dealer.”
Philip Klein, National Review
“A man who became rich and famous pretending to fight space aliens committed a real act of televised violence on Sunday night—and then Hollywood’s finest gave him a standing ovation barely half an hour later. Is it any wonder that much of America has lost all respect for self-referential Hollywood?…
“In his [acceptance] speech [Smith] cast himself as a protector/victim and said he was ‘overwhelmed by what God is calling on me to do and be in this world.’ He apologized to the film Academy, but not to Mr. Rock. ‘Love will make you do crazy things,’ he added. Try that line sometime at the local police precinct and see how it works.”
Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“According to The New York Post, unnamed industry insiders already are asking if Smith’s award should be rescinded. The Academy announced it will conduct its own investigation and ‘will explore further action and consequences.’…
“If the Academy chooses not to allow Smith to present an award next year—an honor typically bestowed upon Best Actor winners—then that’s fine. But taking away Smith’s Oscar would be absurd, considering that the producer Harvey Weinstein, who has been convicted of rape, still has his Oscar. Roman Polanski, who pleaded guilty to statutory rape, and Mel Gibson, who has an ugly history of racist and anti-Semitic remarks, still have theirs too.”
Jemele Hill, The Atlantic
“Hollywood loves to profit from showing the pain of Black women. Recall Rock’s 2009 documentary, ‘Good Hair,’ supposedly made to document the industry of Black women’s hair care but full of jokes at our expense. And how many Black women haven’t at some point wanted to slap someone for petting our hair? Or for calling our hair ‘unprofessional’? Or for making fun of us for wearing wigs or relaxers?… We need new options in this culture. The choice for protecting Black women shouldn’t be between male violence and everyone else’s silence. When it comes to defending Black women, America is still stuck on stupid.”
Karen Attiah, Washington Post
Some argue, “As a sports fan who has seen scenes like this play out umpteen times, I’ve felt the familiar dread of watching relatively minor transgressions by Black men turn into a vehicle for everyone’s agendas. We can’t even gawk at a little scuffle without worrying that it’ll become a referendum on Black male anger. There was no real harm, and we don’t have to call a foul. Smith and Rock have reportedly reconciled, according to Diddy. Hockey players regularly pound at each other in front of enormous audiences and fans almost never have to deal with the anthropological weight of this kind of discourse…
“We don’t have to take this too seriously. We don’t have to live like this, mapping complex social phenomena on something fundamentally as straightforward and unexceptional as dudes using a personal slight—or a perceived one—as a pretext for getting physical.”
Joel Anderson, Slate
A libertarian's take
“For most of human history… Speech was violence, and anyone who said something offensive could invite reprisal. People who offended their neighbors would engage in blood feuds for generations. People who offended the political authorities could be dismembered. People who offended the religious authorities could be burned to death…
“Letting people kill each other every time they get upset about something is not a great way to run a society. Thankfully, over the past three hundred years, many advanced civilizations have evolved cultural norms that delineate words and actions… Will Smith has reminded everyone precisely why it is so dangerous to erode the critical post-enlightenment distinction between words and actions.”
Robby Soave, Reason