Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Sam Urdank's avatar

There is no doubt in my mind that there will continue to be a torrent of remarks flying across every kind of media of outrage and condemnation towards Will Smith for his inexcusable conduct of slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. All of the remarks coming from pundits, celebrities and the public, like “I’m outraged” or “I feel traumatized” including “Take his Oscar away from him” are just beyond me.

We are all entitled to have our opinion about what he did, what both of them did. As shown by Steven, while connecting the dots to the larger point of accountability as eloquently as ever. In as much as I don’t condone Smith’s conduct, part of me understands it. No one has to like what Smith did nor do they have to find Rock’s “Joke” appropriate or funny at all.

It got me to thinking, so I did a little research, and as the parlance goes “Therein lies the rub”. On March 10, 1977, then-43-year-old film director Roman Polanski was arrested and charged in Los Angeles with six offenses against a 13-year-old girl – unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, rape by use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor. At his arraignment, Polanski pleaded not guilty to all charges but later accepted a plea bargain whose terms included dismissal of the five more serious charges in exchange for a guilty plea to the lesser charge of engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Hm..why would he do that? I wondered to myself. Nudge nudge wink wink.. But the judge would not accept his plea, so Polanski fled the country for Europe.

In the face of the events of 1977, in 2003 he was awarded The Academy Award for Best Director for “The Pianist”, a film that I saw. So, if we want to be outraged, perhaps we ought to be outraged about that..

I was looking through a case of DVDs today for a specific film, and came across a DVD of “Frantic” a Polanski film, it was made in 1988, and it occurred to me, none of the participants in that film had any outrage or problem working on it, nor did those who worked on “The Pianist”. But here we are in 2022 pointing our fingers at Will Smith with “traumatized outraged” condemnation. And for what, poor conduct at a live awards show? Yeah, I know, he hit him..But if we’re going to wave our fingers, we better pick up our hypocrisy along with our coats at the coatcheck..on our way home..

Expand full comment
Arrive1's avatar

Just as I am growing old and seeking peace and calm in my life, a slap was brought into my living room and ruined my pleasant evening. I too just wanted a break from all the news and an escape from reality just for one night. We cannot escape it any longer. We are stuck in a loop of anger, retaliation, physical violence and an assault on our psyche that tries to make reason of chaos. We have all been assaulted.

Expand full comment
12 more comments...

No posts