I don’t watch the Oscars, but the slap that Will Smith wielded to Chris Rock’s face is still reverberating. One could ask if it’s worth dedicating a monthly message to this bygone news. Shouldn’t it be relinquished to the pages of history as a negligible episode, especially against the backdrop of current wars and a global pandemic? In other words, shouldn’t we just move on? The answer I gave myself is, no.
It’s important to address these actions because whenever a recognized and well-regarded person does such a thing, he or she sends a wide and ringing message. Will Smith slapped more than one face that night, including his own. The act might have been small, but the cameras are big. After so many years of trying to send a message of non-violence, he slapped the face of the young generation, which I believe, had an unwritten agreement with Hollywood: it’s okay to have violence in our movies and video games, not in real life.
On the other hand, one can claim that violence is sold as entertainment to our young people, so what should we expect? When two out of every three shows or movies are endlessly violent or maintain a violent spirit, it was just a matter of time. Chris Rock might have been surprised, but society shouldn’t be. Regretfully, Will Smith was able to remain in the theater, not immediately escorted outside. And even worse, in order to “save face,” the crowd cheered him a little while later, when he was called to the stage to receive the Oscar as Best Actor. It is a sad moment to applaud.
At the end of the movie, “A Time to Kill,” a black man stands trial for murdering the two rednecks who raped his daughter. His defense attorney, played by Matthew McConaughey, is recapping for the jury what happened to the young Black girl that day, while asking them to close their eyes and imagine it. And then at the end of his gory account, he asks them to imagine she was a white girl. Now, can you imagine Will Smith slapping a woman? Or if he had slapped a white man? What would have happened if a white man had slapped Chris Rock? Would we have reacted the same way?
Slapping occurs several times in the Bible, always in a degrading rebuke for something that shouldn’t have been said or seen. For those still trying to rationalize Smith’s actions, and whether Chris Rock crossed a line — whether he deserved a slap in the face for what he saw, or a smack on the mouth for what was said — Will Smith became at once the plaintiff, the judge, and the executioner. Another example of lawlessness and bullying, in a world already saturated with violence.
Think of Moses striking the other famous rock. For this act of defiance, God denied him entry to the Holy Land. In the Hollywood story, Will Smith was dismissed from the Academy. He, too, will have to gaze at it from afar.
May this spring bloom with peace.
—Rabbi Gadi Capela