Bayou Beat News

SLAPPING AWAY DOUBLE STANDARDS: Will Smith showed there’s never a ‘convenient’ time to protect the Black woman

By: Ms. N.W.A.

“The most disrespected woman in America, is the Black woman. The most un-protected person in America is the Black woman. The most neglected person in America, is the Black woman.” — Malcolm X.

At only 14 years old, Emmett Till was killed after being accused of whistling at, or offending, a white woman in her family’s grocery store. The Black Wall Street massacre of 1921 began after a Black 19-yearold shoe shiner was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old white elevator operator. The Rosewood massacre occurred after a white woman claimed she had been assaulted by a Black man. All of these were lies, of course, and just last year, 22-year-old Barry Washington, a Black man from Oregon, was shot and killed after paying a white woman a compliment.

Lives have been lost when white women are “offended,” but when a Black woman is offended, her husband is crucified for “defending” her. At the 2022 Academy Awards, comedian and actor Chris Rock made fun of a bald Jada Pinkett Smith, calling her “G.I. Jada,” apparently not knowing that she suffered a hair loss disorder, alopecia. And while Rock thought it was funny, Pinkett Smith did not, and when her husband saw the pain in her eyes, he did what any man who loves his woman would do. Protect her.

Will Smith walked on stage, slapped the taste out of Rock’s mouth, then went back to his front row seat, leaving Rock stunned. Smith then shouted with force, “keep my wife’s name out of your fu$*ing mouth!”

For years, the “Everybody Hates Chris” creator has made Pinkett Smith the butt of his jokes. I guess Smith, compiled with everything else he’s been going through with his marriage being on display, just got fed up. We believe Rock got the message – leave Mrs. Smith alone.

So why is America so outraged? To me, Rock using the “in the name of comedy” freedom of speech idea is a bogus excuse. We women deserve better – especially Black women – , and we applaud Smith for stepping up. Now granted, he could have done it in a different way and at a different time. We definitely don’t condone violence! To the people who argue that Smith took us back a hundred years, I tell you, he has not. He stood up for the hundreds of years of suffering the Black woman has endured. And yes, it’s sad that, oftentimes, it’s from our own kind.

Many people are pointing out that Rock has made tasteless jokes aimed at Blacks for quite some time now. In the days following the now infamous Oscar night, videos and interviews have been going viral of Rock seemingly putting down Blacks, with one particular clip showing him, Ricky Gervais and Louis C.K. throwing around the “N-Word” and mocking the wealth status of African Americans. The exchange clearly made legendary comedian Jerry Seinfeld uncomfortable, prompting him to point out that use of the word was unnecessary.

Don’t get us wrong, even though we feel Rock was out of line making fun of another person’s medical condition, we do not believe Smith had the right to use violence. But we do need to point out that Smith is not the first celebrity to “act up” in public over a woman. Has everyone conveniently forgotten when another “Rock,” first name “Kidd,” punched Tommy Lee at the MTV VMA Awards over a beef that started over Pamela Anderson?

So what’s the difference between that situation and the recent one? Is just another example of “buck breaking,” which is what they did to strong Black men in the slave era. Let’s set the record straight, no matter how people feel about the marital issues regarding the Smiths, Mrs. Smith was just as much a victim as Mr. Rock and she deserves to be protected. There should be no double standard for protecting white women over our Black wives, mothers, daughters, etc. – period.

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