Gene Therapy: Chris Rock, Don't Be Sorry, Be Careful!
by Gene Clemons
Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Academy Awards. He did it on live television and in front of an audience filled with their peers. So many people were shocked by the event it almost crashed social media. There is one clip on Twitter that at the time this is being written has over 50 million views. Chris Rock called it "the greatest night in the history of television" in the immediate reaction to the run in with Smith. Why did it happen? It was the product of a joke. A joke that made fun of Jada Pinkett-Smith's bald head. Pinkett-Smith has been open about dealing with alopecia and part of it has been embracing this new bald look. But any time people who live in the public eye have to deal with changes in their life, they do so publicly. Because of that they are open to ridicule and scrutiny by people who feel as if stars should be able to accept ridicule and deal with hurtful jokes because they are rich and famous. You hear people say things like “That’s the price of fame.” This is the place where athletics and the arts deal with the same issues. Because they perform publicly, people believe they know actors, musicians, and athletes. Because they are compensated handsomely, people believe they have the right to say whatever. Jokes like Chris Rock’s open the doors for the average person to make light of a serious situation.
Was the slap extreme, probably, but what better way should Smith have handled it? At some point, embarrassing someone publicly should be matched with the same energy. If Smith reaches out to Rock behind the scenes and voices his displeasure with Rock, would Rock go public with the conversation and apologize or does he go with the old adage that as a comedian, you never feel bad about anything you say on stage because it is all art. If that is the case, there is a chance that as a long-time standup comedian, Rock knew that this could happen when you look to get laughs at the expense of someone in the audience. He may just file the slap under the “price of doing business” as a standup comedian. For Smith, this is simply having his wife’s back in the moment immediately. You could see she did not find the joke funny at all. Will could have sat there but instead wanted to let Rock and probably all of the people who have taken shots at his family for over 25 years that he is no longer going to tolerate the foolishness and disrespect lobbed at them. This is the shot heard round the world and a warning. Tread lightly! But for many others who are not Will Smith or have Smith’s public cache when they are violated or attacked (physically or verbally).
Athletes are often ridiculed for their performance by people who could never come close to playing their sport and even if they did play, they most likely fall drastically short of the excellence of the player. The entitlement of fans, and even analysts, to believe they can say whatever, whenever they want to an athlete with impunity is amazing. When Kwame Brown became tired of being used as a punchline by Stephen A. Smith and various other NBA and basketball commentators and writers, he began firing back. Some of the rants he went on were probably funny to many in the public space, but they came from a real place where that man no longer felt as if he could hold his tongue. We have all been there but thankfully for the majority of us, we don’t have to live out our lives for millions of people to see.
So, on the occasion that there is a response from an athlete, it is often disastrous for the fan and the player. The fan gets beat up, embarrassed, removed from venues, and banned from watching the team they claim to love in person. With all of that, it is still worse for the players. They receive backlash for being thin skinned. They get their actions questioned and their performances are put underneath a microscope, and if they actually get into a physical altercation, there is the legal side of things, especially if that person is looking at the player as a lottery ticket. Even when the fan is in the wrong, they still look for cause to sue a player and force a settlement because most players don’t want their personal lives on display for everyone to see. Many people look to take advantage of the fact that for many of these athletes, it is cheaper to settle than to spend the time and money going through civil litigation. In many cases athletes, like movie and music stars, can’t live normal lives. There is so much anxiety behind functioning in a society that forces them to be “on” at all times because Lebron has to be Lebron at the store, Beyonce has to always be Beyonce regardless of how she feels, and Will Smith is expected to be the “Fresh Prince” or that movie megastar they see on screen.
This Smith/Rock situation should remind everyone of a simple fact. Just because you have freedom of speech, it does not mean you are free from the consequences that follow your speech. In this hyper-sensitive society, it is interesting that criticism and ridicule have not subsided. In fact, many fans, columnists, bloggers, and mass media types feel more empowered to voice their strong opinions because they realize that level of spice gets reactions from people on both sides of the issue. We hardly ever stop to consider the feelings of the person we are kicking while they are down. We don’t think in their worst moment or a time where they are feeling unsure of themselves that their reaction might be over the top. That’s a failure on our part to read the room because whatever was said could possibly be the straw that broke the camel’s back. This event is supposed to be a celebration of excellence in film, it is not a stand-up half-hour special. For the most part, the people attending this show are not there for the laughs and they definitely are not there for laughs at the expense of the people who are there or dealing with illness.
It has been said that Rock may not have known what Pinkett-Smith was going through. If that is the case, then that is a failure on his part. The first failure was to make people laugh by dissing someone else. The second failure was not knowing the person you were dissing, was going through a serious issue and that it had probably affected her mentally and emotionally. The final failure was not being prepared. He stood on stage with his hands behind his back after firing off his joke and the subsequent comments based on the crowd reaction. He watched Smith walk up to him knowing that was not in the program or script. He then took a flush slap to the face which we should all be thankful that Smith did not decide to test out his punching ability. Rock may have been out cold; Smith would have been escorted out in handcuffs and society would still be mocking people. In fact, the entire aftermath has been filled with people getting their jokes off at Rock’s expense; what interesting irony.
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Gene Clemons is a Sports Analyst and Contributor to CWN Sports. His weekly column and podcast - Gene Therapy focuses on Sports, Politics and Social/Urban issues.
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