By Nylah Van Putten, Staff Writer

April 11, 2022

It’s very hard to wrap my head around this whole thing because it was just so sudden. When I first heard about the slapping, I was like “Huh!? Will Smith?? No, no, there’s gotta be some mistake” because who thought in a million years that Will Smith would be slapping people? I know I didn’t…

The incident has caused a lot of backlash and opinions flying everywhere.

Personally, I’m on Chris’s side.

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The incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock occurred on March 27 during the 94th Academy Awards show. Comedian Chris Rock was presenting the award for “Best Documentary”, when he made a joke about actor and comedian Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. Afterwards, Smith walked up onto the stage, slapped Chris across the face, and walked off, sitting back in his seat.

Rock’s joke was a reference to “G.I. Jane” and hit home for Jada and apparently her husband, as it was about a medical condition. Pinkett-Smith has recently been open about her struggles with alopecia, a disease that causes hair loss to the scalp and sometimes the entire body. As a result, she decided to shave her head, but it’s still a reminder and leaves a (hopefully not permanent) emotional scar.

After Smith had returned to his seat, he began yelling at Rock, shouting “Keep my wife’s name out your f***in’ mouth!” twice. The entire room got quiet and Rock said into the microphone, “Will Smith just slapped the sh** outta me!”

Rock was able to compose himself maturely and continued presenting the award, making a few jokes about the incident before continuing, but there was still a lot of tension in the room.

***

I love Will Smith. Personally, he’s amazing, but I don’t agree with his actions. I don’t know Chris Rock that well, except that he voiced Marty in all the “Madagascar” films, but I feel more sympathetic to him.

As a comedian, I think Rock should have known whether or not a line would be crossed by a particular joke he says, but I also think this should’ve been handled much differently…

First of all, I think Chris Rock should have kept his mouth shut in the first place.

Secondly, I think Will Smith should have been able to compose himself like Rock was able to.

And, thirdly, I think Smith, as a comedian himself, should have comforted his wife separately, telling her things like how beautiful she is, and not to pay attention to Rock. He should have definitely used words and not violence.

***

Following the Oscar's incident, the two men were seen to have made public apologies on Facebook, however, what was supposed to be Rock’s apology was in fact not by him at all.

In Smith’s apology, posted on Facebook, he focused more on taking responsibility for his actions by saying, “Violence in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive.” He apologized to Rock and the Academy publicly, as well as his own family, and the cast and crew of the movie he’d recently won an Oscar for--”King Richard.”

At the very end he states, “I am a work in progress.”

***

I think it was good of Smith to apologize, but I hope he understands that Rock might not be handling the situation all that well.

He might have been able to compose himself on stage, but he was also in front of a lot of other people and had no time to break down or be upset.

Everyone handles things differently. He could have cried his eyes out or punched a hole in a wall for all anyone knows! But that said, I think Smith is handling this responsibly, on his end, and I hope he really means his apology and doesn’t resort to violence again in the future.