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In this vein I suspect that Smith was, on a certain level, performing for Black America, supposing that many of his Black fans would see him as going to a perhaps unideal extreme, but one that might be warranted when a man decides to “stand up” for his woman. This time it was a slap, which in the scheme of violent reactions, is a lot less permanent. A “real man” won’t take that sort of disrespect, so he has to do something about it.
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If you want to survive the “mean streets,” you can’t let people think they can push you around, which includes dissing your woman.
#ROXANE GAY WILL SMITH WRONG IS CODE#
In the ’90s, the sociologist Elijah Anderson documented that “street culture has evolved what may be called a code of the streets, which amounts to a set of informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior, including violence,” such that “people become very sensitive to advances and slights, which could well serve as warnings of imminent physical confrontation.”įor criminal defense lawyers, street “justice” is nothing new. John McWhorter, however, is an educator by trade, and so provides some background to the perspective. And it’s not her job to educate you either. If you disagree, that’s just because you don’t get it, and you should shut up, sit down, listen and do as you’re told. We know what it’s like to withstand scrutiny without intervention.įor Gay, there are laws, rules and norms, and then there are black women’s feelings, which can’t be constrained by any of the foregoing.
#ROXANE GAY WILL SMITH WRONG IS PROFESSIONAL#
No less a heavyweight than Roxane Gay explained why, after repeating the requisite “violence is wrong” mantra, she loved it.Īnd what gets lost in the discourse is that, however disappointing the incident was, it was also a rare moment when a Black woman was publicly defended.įor many Black women, it was a painful spectacle because we know what it is like to experience that kind of scrutiny, interrogation and disrespect in personal and professional settings. But that’s more an elite white folx way of explaining it. To some, this was a reflection of the honor code of “toxic masculinity,” defending one’s woman from insult. When he went from laughing at Rock’s joke to seeing his wife upset by it, he shifted modes into the defender of her honor. Yet, this isn’t necessarily the reason Will Smith gave in to his impulse. They internalized the nonsensical contortions necessary to explain why speech is violence because it hurts their feelings, it traumatizes them, and if you don’t agree, you deserve to get punched. Remember when the guy getting sucker punched was named Richard Spencer, and suddenly punching someone because you generally hated his views became the subject of hot debate, and far hotter rationalizations?Īfter all, Spencer was a “Nazi,” it was argued, so how could it be wrong to punch him? And so it slid down the slippery slope to punching fascists, whether by those who thought wearing black masks exempted them from law and norms and blessed their hitting people with bike locks?īut this comes at the issue from the perspective of the tolerant and empathetic, who can express with the utmost sincerity why their violence, brimming with the best of intentions and directed at the worst people ever, is good violence, as opposed to the bad violence of the other side. Consider instead the issue of physical violence in response to speech. The Blue Rose Research poll found that 52.3% of people blamed Rock for the incident, compared to 47.7% who said Smith was out of line, according to a report published by on Tuesday.įorget about Will Smith and Chris Rock for a moment. More than half of those surveyed in a new poll said the comedian was in the wrong when he joked about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head at the Oscars - and do not fault actor Will Smith for smacking him on camera. Whether we call it irony or hypocrisy, it’s who “we” are today.