𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗡𝗙𝗟, 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗦𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵, & 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗛𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗹𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗰 "𝗪𝗼𝗺𝗲n’’𝘀 𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵" 𝗛𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻

I am the #1 anti-Chris Rock fan. Heck, I’m probably the unofficial founder of his anti-fan club, but I do not agree he deserved what happened at the well-produced, physical, racial and gender inclusive Oscar awards last night.

First of all, I didn’t know sista has alopecia and maybe he didn’t either, especially when you watch the unedited clip (see previous post, NSFW). Even if he did know, everyone in the world agrees Jada Pinkett is absolutely beautiful and she never really had hair. Let’s be real. She’s always rocked a fade or a close cut with no doubt that she’s fine as wine so miss me with that alopecia drama. I thought he called her GI Jane as a comedic compliment to her hairstyle and physique because GI Jane was a strong, bald, physically fit woman. Of course, I agree that having alopecia is extremely traumatic, especially if you are NOT a wealthy celebrity and magazine cover model who set beauty trends by wearing her hair close to the scalp. Plus, I know too many confident, strong, beautiful, bald Black women who can take a bald-headed joke to allow that as defense of his actions.

This is the second time that Chris Rock has made a joke about Jada Smith at an award show. He joked about their Oscar protest in 2016. They did not attend because Smith wasn’t nominated for "Concussion". Now if you want me to believe that he’s been carrying this grudge for 6 years and the camel’s back broke last night, I could probably get with that. It’s been a mentally stressful past 2 years for EVERYONE.

However…Will Smith embarrassed the race, live, on international television.

I cannot condone nor defend this behavior. He could have taken his wife by the hand, flipped Chris the bird and walked out of the theater making just as big of a statement.
Teenagers can sit at a lunch counter and get spit on and have food poured all over them and never retaliate physically, but people are saying that Will Smith was right to assault Chris Rock over a joke.
Our ancestors had dogs sicked on them, their children were spit on with the National Guard holding back racist enemies of equality while walking to integrate schools and they did not retaliate with violence, but Will Smith had a duty to defend his wife by committing criminal battery against a Black man, live, on international television while we were celebrating Sidney Poitier and two black women hosting the Oscars?
Ok.

I just cannot ride on that train of thought. Believe me, I'm much more Malcolm X than MLK, but, again, Will Smith embarrassed the race last night, live, on international television in one of the best, most diverse Oscars in history.

Sidebar, may I approach #iykyk:
Usually I would consider this kitchen table talk, deemed only for certain audiences, but since Will & Jada think it’s cute to make money by sitting at their red table, putting all their private business out into the world, I’ll just follow suit.

Check it out, this is not Smith’s first offense caught on video (see my fb post video clip where he assaults a young reporter for kissing him on the cheek during a hug). He’s rich and he gets away with accosting people no one really cares about ie possibly gay reporters, Black men. If he had gotten up and smacked Tom Hanks, he’d currently be held without bail because the court is closed on Sundays and the docket is full on Mondays or some such reason.
How was security not called for either of these instances? How is he able to get up, accept an award and deliver a speech after assaulting someone? This wasn’t a "let them play" situation on a hockey rink or basketball court. He stole on a Black man, live, on international television and NO ONE did anything, even after it was confirmed that the s*** was not part of the program.

By the way, his career will be just fine. It's not like he slapped Leonardo DiCaprio or intimidated a celebrity white woman.
I mean, he's not Kanye West who can't perform at the Grammys over some "online behavior" they are attributing to Trevor Noah. God forbid the Grammys actually come out and say "we do not condone harassment of women, therefore Kanye West will not be performing." He's not performing because he harassed a celebrity white woman, repeatedly, for weeks, until they had no choice. Kanye West has been calling people c00ns and saying the n-word while performing at the Grammys since his first album went Gold so I'm not falling for that Trevor Noah rap. The Grammys can't make a blanket statement supporting women, in general, because that might prohibit a number of performers from being allowed to attend. (Check out that documentary about Marilyn Manson's torture of Evan Rachel Wood and testimony from Ashley Morgan. It is spine chillingly disgusting).

Will Smith is not rebuked for his actions for the same reason Kanye West can publicly intimidate his wife and DeShaun Watson can receive the biggest NFL contract in history with 22 civil cases of female abuse against him. Neither Hollywood nor the NFL really care about women or Black people, in that order.

F𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒅𝒖𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒊𝒄 𝑾𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒏'𝒔 𝑯𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒉:

1). If you're a rich man, you can get away with a whole heck of a lot, especially if you have a lucrative talent. If you're a white male politician you can even get away with demeaning and verbally attacking a prestigious Black woman by calling it a confirmation hearing.

2). WNBA players can’t get rich unless they play in other countries, especially the most politically unstable for some reason. If said country kidnaps an American woman, she is on her own. Now if Tom Brady were detained in Russia, there’d be a Black Hawk Down-Special Forces rescue movie, based on real events, already streaming on HBO Max.

SN: Take a listen to ESPN 1000 Chicago’s interview of African-American Ukranian team basketball player, Jerome Randle, discussing his experiences abandoning everything and leaving Ukraine just days before the war began. 😢

3). Harassing women online or in person is not amusing or entertaining. Just like I do not condone Will Smith’s behavior, I do not find comedy in Kanye’s frightening treatment of his children’s mother, no matter her economic status. This is a horrible example to set for young men.

4). We, women, are not as innocent as we purport. Sometimes we make bad decisions like everybody else in the world. We put marijuana in our carry-on luggage. #Brittneygrinerwasframed

We allow men to make jokes and insinuations and get away with little touches here and there until we've finally had enough or felt strong enough to tell someone, only to realize they've had the same experience.
#ClevelandBrownsHateWomen

And sometimes, honestly, we manipulate men. I mean it’s just so easy, right 😄? #NoJudgement Jada Pinkett’s actions have come back to haunt her. Malcolm X would say her chickens have come home to roost. She has put that already emotionally unstable man through so much publicly, I’m sure he felt like he had to defend her in an "Every night I gotta prove my love", 💓💓💓💓💓 kind of way. In his memoir, he talks about how he wanted to be like Tupac for Jada because of how much she loved him. His initial laugh seemed genuine until he looked over at her and saw that she was not amused, then he went all gangsta rap on Rock. When he returned to his seat, she gave him a Virginia Thomas-like rub on the head as if he were a good boy and she were some 007 female hench(wo)man. #yeahIsaidit
Of course we all want a man that’ll slap somebody like Smith smacked Rock, but save that for the after party. Like Diddy said, take care of that like family by keeping it in the family, not broadcasting it on The Red Table or the Oscars.

If you choose to defend Smith’s gallant public response via lame a** sucker-slap, I expect you to ride just as hard for the LGBTQ+, Asian and Latin X who are often at the disrespectful end of inappropriate jokes. Whenever you hear a gay joke, I expect to see a back-hand flying through the air. Next time you call somebody a "p****" or 'gay' derogatorily, don’t be surprised when someone is sent to slap you in front of everyone. If we’re going to protect certain women from jokes, let’s ball out and protect everybody with a public high five to the face. Chris Rock will never say Jada Pinkett’s name again. Maybe violence is the best strategy to end hate. If Will Smith would smack every cop who killed an innocent, unarmed black man or every football player accused of assaulting women, maybe the world would be a better place.

5). At some point myself, other women and self-professed #GirlDads are going to have to take a stand, start believing women and stop condoning the bad behavior of Black men. If Adrian Brody had gotten up and smacked Will Smith without repercussion, we'd be protesting in the streets. If Ben Roethlisberger was accused of assaulting 22 Black women (instead of 2 white women, lest we forget), we'd have a clever hashtag trending. And we would never allow Kanye West to attack a sista the way we laugh at him harassing his ex-wife. Look how hard we're going for Ketani. We don't play that.

Personally, I’m struggling with my own hypocrisy as a female football fan and considering not going to ANY Bears games this season, which really really really really really really hurts. I protested home games last season, choosing not to fund the Bears flailing front office. It might be illogical thinking, but I cannot purchase NFL apparel or tickets if my money has a chance of somehow trickling down into a serial abuser’s paycheck. I’m just not that big of a sports fan, I guess. I’m still going to watch the games on TV so I guess I’m not the greatest feminist either.

Deep down I’m praying the Academy, Chris Rock and Will Smith will announce that this was all just some big social experiment.
I’m also hoping some LMT has video proof of Deshaun Watson’s bad behavior or a Monica Lewinsky covered towel; Kanye West decides to raise his children and co-parent like a real man; and the courts release more damning, crazied, ultra-right-wing texts of Virginia Thomas embarrassing the (dis)Honorable Justice Thomas who has the nerve not to support a Black woman after he so publicly got away with sexually assaulting one. It’s scary to recall that two branches of our nation’s government were led by prejudiced, p**** grabbers for years.

I am loving the efforts of industries to be more open-minded, representative and diverse, but we’ve got a long way to go when it comes to truly protecting women and each other. Instead of celebrating 3 women hosting the Oscars, Will Smith’s behavior was just another sad demonstration of toxic March Masculinity.
We can’t have nothin’. 🙎🏾

Happy Women’s History Month!

As usual, do your research and come to your own conclusions.
I don't know anything. #IJS
✌🏾♥️