Actor Will Smith gave comedian Chris Rock an open-handed slap across the face at the 2022 Oscars. If you hadn’t heard this by now, you have truly been disconnected — which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But for the rest of us who have been subjected to the barrage of news coverage on this, it’s simply old news by now. Or is it?
For the most part, we live in a civil society. It is not common for us to slap people, even when they say things we don’t like. Free speech is one thing. Deliberate violence is another.
Will Smith’s slapping of Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars was a televised physical assault. There is no other way to describe it. In most any other situation, the aggressor would have been arrested or sued.
Meanwhile, Rock’s choice to use Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, in a joke that publicly disparaged the effects of alopecia was beyond tacky. Diseases and disabilities should not be jokes. Unfortunately, in the world we live in today, they too often are. Many of us can relate to how Smith must have felt, but most of us would still have restrained ourselves.
You could likely name a number of people who you would like to slap for things they have said. You may want to slap me. But you don’t. And for good reason.
Smith could have expressed his concern in interviews after the Oscars. He could have written an op ed that many newspapers and news websites would have published. He could have even walked on stage, looked Rock in the eyes and told him to never do that again. But he didn't. He assaulted Rock, and that’s wrong.
Some say that this was all a planned publicity stunt. I hope not. I don’t understand the ovation for Smith in his acceptance speech later in the evening or for the public support for Rock. Both men clearly messed up, and, to their credit, have at least partially recognized this. Some professional athletes have stated they are not role models, and actors and comedians aren’t necessarily either. But they are human beings, and with that, they have a responsibility to treat each other better than how these two grown men did.
The lesson here is that we all need to control ourselves better. We need to restrain what our mouths say and how our hands react. We have all made mistakes, me included. And we can all learn from this overly publicized incident. A little thought before action usually proves to be helpful. It certainly would have helped with this public fiasco.
Have a thoughtful Tuesday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305 | 
