Trinity Jones
Staff Writer
Comedian Chris Rock, a 2022 Oscar Award show presenter made history as the first person assaulted live on stage of the Academy Awards. Known for his controversial stand-up comedy specials, before listing the nominees, Rock cracked jokes on multiple nominated actors and actresses within the show’s crowd.
Rock’s joke toward Jada Pinkett-Smith, saying he couldn’t wait for “G.I Jane 2” to come out, referencing her buzzcut hairstyle, began a series of unfortunate events.
Pinkett-Smith, who is a victim of a hair-loss condition called Alopecia which causes hair loss, showed her disproval of the comment.
Her husband, well known multi-faceted actor Will Smith, initially laughed at the joke, but after noticing his wife’s reaction, decided to strike back, literally, when he walked on stage and back-handed the comedian before returning to his seat to repeatedly say, “keep my wife’s name out your f*cking mouth.”
On March 4, almost a year later, Netflix released a special, “Selective Outrage” featuring Rock and fans finally got to hear how the comedian felt about the incident.
“You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith—it still hurts,” Rock said comparing Smith to Suge Knight, the convicted felon and former CEO of Death Row Records. “I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears, but I’m not a victim, baby—I took that hit like Pacquiao,” he said during the stand-up.
Rock went on to say, “I have rooted for Will Smith my whole life—now I watch “Emancipation” just to see him get whooped,” referring to the enslaved male role Smith played in the movie.
Donovan Morton, a junior biology/pre-med major from Canton, Miss., felt the slave comment was offensive.
“I think it’s past insensitive—that’s crazy,” said Morton.
Tionda Yarbrough, a junior business administration major from Beloit, Wis., was also offended by the comment.
“I get you got slapped and I get you were embarrassed, but comparing that to watching a movie about a slave getting beat is weird,” Yarbrough says. “You could have said anything else.”
Mark Henderson, founder of MADDRAMA Performance Troupe and faculty member within the Speech and Theatre department on the campus felt otherwise.
“I can’t say that I felt like it was insensitive in the context,” Henderson said. “Anything about slavery and glorifying it or putting it in that light is kind of awkward for us as African-Americans.”
Henderson believes the comment could be considered a form of projecting that same hurt onto Will Smith as opposed to that of the character.
Morton feels that Rock caused the events on Oscar night is now victimizing himself.
“Seeing that he was the reason that he got slapped, I think he’s trying to become a victim even though he says he’s not one. He was the reason why this all went down, if the joke was never made [then] nothing would’ve ever happened,” said Morton.
Henderson believes Rock’s way of responding was all about the benjamins.
“It was his choice—[Rock] decided which avenue he wanted to use to respond and deciding to wait to use it through this avenue probably gave him a whole lot of money,” Henderson said.
Henderson added, “We can’t tell a person how they should respond or when they should respond or what they should respond to.”
According to IndieWire, “Selective Outrage” Reached Netflix’s Top 10 in U.S. with just a day of viewing.
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