Of course the manosphere moment of the month would happen when I was writing the chapter on Women.
But I have to break my self imposed silence.
The facts
Chris Rock makes a joke about Jada Pinkett starring in GI Jane 2 – (where Demi Moore shaves her head to be in the military*)
*There’s already some Manosphere Red Meat in that concept alone. I’m not her for that.
The Audience Laughs, including Will Smith, but Jada rolls her eyes.
We do not see her look at Will, at least I did not.
Will Smith, who was laughing at first, changes.
We don’t see if Jada said anything to will.
Then Will walks up on stage.
Chris Rock does not know what’s going on, but “rough housing” and improvisation have been parts of this show.
Moreover, Chris Rock has worked with both Will and Jada. He’s even had a few jokes their way as well.
And then Will Smith assaults Chris Rock.
Chris Rock is stunned. Apologizing, Will Smith continues to throw shots from the sidelines. Rock makes a “well that happened” joke.
And this started a firestorm in the black community at large, the red pill community, and the black manosphere.
So let’s start with the first take on this whole thing
Take #1 – It was Fake.
These smooth brains think that Will Packer (first black show runner of the Oscars) concocted this bit with Chris Rock and Will Smith to give a boost to the ratings late in the show to do what exactly?
Like the network could suddenly renegotiate the ad rates with advertisers mid show because Proctor and Gamble are dying to have their brands associated with the altercation, and they could get corporate to sign off on it with a phone call.
Like a fight on the biggest night for Hollywood is going to make more people turn in, 1 year later.
A lot of people that I respect, in the mainstream media and in our corner of the internet have proposed this. There are even photoshopped images of a black skin face pad on Chris Rock’s cheek.
“You know the Oscar ratings have been down”
“This will boost Will Smiths’ image”..
I lost so much respect for folks holding this idea. People I know, Big Names in the space. It’s weird to see Barbershop level thinking from College Professors.
Be warned, any comments with the “conspiracy” angle will be deleted. Keep that dumb stuff to yourself.
Take #2 – The Colorism Angle
Chrissie, my favorite dark skinned black woman preaching divestment from the black community aka Blackistan, to live a life of luxury in the arms of a non-Black Man who is also high value – and the value starts with him being high income and high net worth, in addition to having to continually sacrifice himself with personal service to her delight, not merely her benefit.
I’m paraphrasing the video, but
Light Skinned/Bi-Racial/Exotic Black Women can expect protection, but not you 4C Darkies that watch my channel.
This is my actual favorite take because it’s so bizarre.
She said that she needed to put the “colorist” argument out there.
https://youtu.be/tvfN00GJNTA
I don’t know how common Chrissie’s take is, but there are a significant portion of black women that not only agree with Will’s actions, but lament that they are not deemed worthy enough for that protection.
My brothers that date sistas, these types of pathologies are something that you are going to have to deal with…
Take #3 – A lot Black Women say “Protect Black Women”
So the Reporter comes at comedian Tiffany Haddish (I should put comedian in quotes. She does not really review well. And that’s all I’m going to stay on that front.
But the Typical Internet Black woman – working class, middle class, and “social media class” – is YASSSS GIRLLL-ing all over Twitter.
THAT’S HOW YOU DO IT.
Their logic is this. Chris Rock “attacked” Jada. And Will Smith protected her.
Chris Rock made a verbal joke and Will Smith hit him physically.
The two things are equivalent.
So if a comedian insults Jada, it should be met with physical violence.
But what if Chris Rock was a woman?
One of the many problems with typical Yaasss GIRLLLL take
Regina Hall made fun of Will and Jada (and being a celebrity, especially among family often requires being the butt of the joke)….
Will didn’t slap Regina.
NARY A WORD from the Bitter Black Broad Brigade.
They don’t have the same level of analysis for this do they?
Because a lot of these things in the “gender warz” are not about the principle, but about pushing a certain narrative.
Take #4 – The Simp from the Hood Take
Y’all must have forgot, Will Smith is from West Philly
There are plenty of dudes that think Chris Rock’s joke was beyond the pale, and Will was right to get up out of his seat, damn the consequences*, and preserve her honor**.
*There’s a discussion about middle class/upper class culture of not making spectacles, as well as looking bad in front of white people aka respectability politics. I’m not one of those people that is interested in that conversation, and I have a feeling most of you guys are not either.
**What honor? But we will get to Jada in a minute.
The real problem with the Hood Simp is Will didn’t immediately jump out of his chair when he heard the joke.
Did Jada say something? Did he look at her face? Did he independently change his mind?
I just haven’t seen the evidence on film to say that’s the case.
What we didn’t see was Jada running after her man to stop him though…
Take #5 – Will was Wrong and motivated by either Jada or his own feelings of inadequacy.
You can tell this is where I’m at. Will wasn’t finna do nothing to his colleague and possible friend, until he looked at Jada, Jada said something to him, or he hit his breaking point of disrespect.
Let’s be clear here – something none of the people seem to want to talk about – “disrespecting” Jada is really about Will’s ego, not her reputation.
There are plenty of reasons to vilify Jada, but this has always been about Will’s ego, Will’s image.
He’d taken one too many slights, and his ego was bruised.
Jada is not really a person, she’s an extension of him.
And that’s not news, you can see him steal her spotlight all the time.
Feminists and their supporters should be chastising Will for not letting Jada stick up for herself, as these were just words. But again this is that double sided Feminism that we all know.
Make no mistakes, I’m of the opinion that Will is a punk for slapping Chris Rock over a joke.
But the fact that he probably did it because Jada told him to do it, or worse to win her approval… That’s the simp lesson in this.
He was not mad of his own accord. I still think if he was, it would still be a punk move.
But he did it for Jada.
Let’s switch it up and talk about the 5 people in the room.
Person #1 – Jada
According to the interwebz, Jada grew up in single parent household in Baltimore. This is not an indictment, as many of us grew up in single parent homes. It would be unfair to say she grew up in a matrifocal, gynopotestal, woman centered house hold, off rip, but… when we look at the roles she’s played well…. Let’s not say out loud what a lot of us are thinking.
She is in love with a dead man.
This whole episode is illustrative of another trend in our community. Lot of these chicks want Tupac, if not that, Tupac in a suit. But again, I’m not gonna get into that.
Person #2 – Tupac
For the Black Pill guys that watch this, for the game doubters – Tupac is 5’9″ and Will Smith is 6’2″. Moreover, Pac grew up in acting classes.
He didn’t go “gangsta” until he started rapping. Given his Black Panther upbringing, he really didn’t the gangsta image until he started rolling with Death Row. Again, this ain’t a pissing contest – but when you look through the man’s life, aside from a Larry Davis style episode, Pac really was not about that life.
Jada was so besotten over Tupac, that it even affected her children.
This a letter from Jada’s daughter Willow to a dead Tupac.
DAUGHTER
Person #3 – August Alsina
Jada essentially groomed her son’s drug addicted and emotionally damaged son, August Alsina.
Being the young buck he is, damaged, he couldn’t keep it on the hush. Of course he was gonna speak on it.
Leading us to the “entanglement’ and the red table.
She admits no wrong doing. She was the victim here.
Person #4 – Will Smith
We’ve had to deal with the Smith Family nonsense for quite a while. In the black community, they went from “couples goals” to the butt of endless jokes.
It’s not like Will can’t get a better woman, and doesn’t have entanglements of his own.
But he divorced his old wife for Jada, and then had to put up with her nonsense ever since. They have two kids, but this was their parenting style.
“We don’t do punishment. The way that we deal with our kids is, they are responsible for their lives,” Will explained in an interview in 2013. “Our concept is, as young as possible, give them as much control over their lives as possible and the concept of punishment, our experience has been—it has a little too much of a negative quality.”
He continued, “So when they do things—and you know, Jaden, he’s done things—you can do anything you want as long as you can explain to me why that was the right thing to do for your life.”
The black man, black manosphere, red pill, pua, average person on the street – NOTHING BUT RED FLAGS, WILL SAVE YOURSELF, DIVORCE HER.
Person #5 – The Man of the Hour – Chris Rock
In my opinion, the joke was mild, maybe a bit lame. If he wanted to be more in tune with times, he would have made a Dora Milaje joke
He’s joked about them before, and they have joked about him before.
Others joked about them that very night.
And then we find out
Chris didn’t know about Jada’s “alopecia”.
Chris has been bullied.
But Chris has fought back
He said at one point, he finally decided to fight back against a bully.
“I went home, I put a brick in a book bag — this is like a legendary story in my neighborhood — I swung that s— and smacked the guy in the face with this brick and stomped on him, Joe Pesci-style, to the point that we thought he might die,” Rock recounted.
Do folks really understand how difficult it was to take that slap, apologize, make a joke and keep it moving? Especially given what he’s gone through?
Where are the thinkpieces and videos about Rock?
In the immediate aftermath, Denzel and Samuel Jackson and others comforted SMITH. Even honorary black dude Bradley Cooper was able to step in and support.
Did the people at the Oscars want to protect Chris? Eliminate the threat?
Will received a standing ovation. Didn’t apologize to Chris, just to the academy. (and his apology to Chris was via IG, the next day)
Why?
The ironies among ironies, what we in the sphere know
Will Smith is Alpha.
Chris Rock is Beta.
Despite Will’s simp behavior, despite “mate guarding”, even with folks in Hollywood condemning him after the fact – the story is still about Will. In Jada’s eyes, Pac will always be more Alpha than Will, but in 2022, Will is more Alpha than Chris.
That’s the toughest lesson from all of this.
This the cruel reality we all live in.
Honor means nothing.
Doing the right thing, means nothing.
Had Chris fought back, both would have been sullied, and Chris Rock would have lost points for losing his cool, and his joke retroactively would have been the worst thing ever said.
He had to take the slap. And he now has to take the said and unsaid insults. Now he has to deal with pity. Chris will never live this down. He will make some money and some jokes, but this will leave a deep scar.
Chris can’t win. He could not have won. If he keeps a gun on him for the next set of shows, he will still lose.
Will, on the other hand, cannot lose in terms of status.
His star might be dimmed for a bit, but he’s a few sessions of therapy and a year out of the spotlight before he can get his redemption arc. (If Marky Mark and Robert Downey Jr can do it…) And even if we never see him again, he will have to go back to his life with a net worth of 350M….
Make no mistake, Will is broken, but he still has the spotlight.
