"... but it has the stamina to dissect the psychic pain of a mogul in a made-to-measure Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo. It has the wherewithal to pause and consider the complexity of a powerful Black man who says that he was protecting his powerful Black wife, when society too often doesn’t have the patience to deal with anonymous Black folks just trying to get by...."
Writes Robin Givhan in "Will Smith, spit-polished thuggery and disrespect" (WaPo).
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So this is the inevitable "Black men have the right to react violently" article I've been expecting. (remember, we're supposed to believe that Black female teenagers have the right to have knife fights)
Smith has a history. If anyone watched Tucker Carlson a few nights ago, Piers Morgan was a guest. Morgan related that he had previously interviewed Jada Pinkett Smith. Prior to the interview, the soft-hearted (sarc) Will Smith threw down a warning to the Brit regarding the imminent interview. He is a thug.
She is right that we tolerate rich priveleged people doing violence like this while the street thug gets no sympathy.
We need to stop tolerating the rich side knot begin tolerating the thug.
Unless we ant to firmly and truly say to the world African Americans are inherently violent so we need to tolerate it
Always the victim.
Even when they're the aggressor.
"...when society too often doesn’t have the patience to deal with anonymous Black folks just trying to get by...."
Don't bother reading the article, here's the TL:DR:
Asians assaulted by 'folks trying to get by', black people hardest hit.
Humperdink said...
Smith has a history. If anyone watched Tucker Carlson a few nights ago, Piers Morgan was a guest. Morgan related that he had previously interviewed Jada Pinkett Smith. Prior to the interview, the soft-hearted (sarc) Will Smith threw down a warning to the Brit regarding the imminent interview. He is a thug.
Warning regarding what exactly? Not to have it off with her in the bushes while Will was in the vicinity?
The more eloquently the racist apologists become, the more they single out and differentiate the race as a race with its peculiar manners and weaknesses, the more they disgrace and discredit themselves and those for whom they claim to speak.
Chris Rock used to have a line in his act about there being no white person in the audience who would be willing to trade places with him. Chris lives in a mansion and regularly has sex with beautiful women. I'd swap. Chris Rock, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith have first world problems and like to think that they are in some way the poor and wretched of the earth....They don't have delusions of grandeur. They have the reality of grandeur and delusions of oppression....This happened against the background of Ukraine where ten million people lost their homes, 3.5 million are refugees in foreign lands, and thousands of others have lost their lives. There is not a Black person on the Washington Post or AMPA who would be willing to trade places with a Ukrainian for all their white privilege. I bet there aren't that many street level thugs who would want to swap either.
Unless we ant to firmly and truly say to the world African Americans are inherently violent so we need to tolerate it
Well, gilbar said; carefully looking around and behind them... Aren't They?
Smith is one of the most privileged people in history.
He lives in a world of his own making.
It was not so veiled physical threat.
At least from the excerpt I'm not seeing an apology for violence from a black man, or black men as a group, as much as an indictment that we excuse violent incidents from the rich and influential as an aberration rather than an expression of their character.
Alec Baldwin is a free man and the J6 folks are in solitary, and they're both as white as a mayonnaise sandwich.
Kareem Abdul Jabbar jag the right take on his Substack article.
Smith, in the movies that I have seen him in, is always a sort of comic character. His relationship with his "wife" is bizarre but probably not unique in that show business crowd. They are all actors and acting is part of their life, more than part. It still smelled of a setup to me.
"The culture has little patience for the damaged thug in a T-shirt and jeans who’s lucky if his power extends the length of a neighborhood block..."
The culture barely allows any discussion of the damage and the damage done. It's racist, you see. Blaming the victim. Let's talk about police instead.
"when society too often doesn’t have the patience to deal with anonymous Black folks just trying to get by...."
You mean, folks trying to get by through violence?
"Will Smith, spit-polished thuggery and disrespect"
Calling thuggery thuggery is a quick way to get cancelled in this culture. Can't dis black-on-black disrespect.
Lighten up, folks. Smith and Rock will be the emcee duo for next year's Oscars with boffo ratings. We'll all be yucking it up about this nothing incident.
The closed end of an open relationship. He, she, they thought they could ab... and have her, too.
I guess you folks haven't read the article.
remember, we're supposed to believe that Black female teenagers have the right to have knife fights
There are diverse precedents for diversity, inequity, and exclusion (DIE): Hutu vs Tutsi, Xhosa vs Zulu, Ukrainians West vs Ukrainians East, Kenyan elite vs Kenyan deplorable, Chinese Han vs other ethnicities, baby... fetus vs progressive, etc, a toxic ensemble of social progress without reconciliation.
But speaking of articles, the opinion column by Megan McCardle in the Post this past Sunday is worth a read.
She seems to have relocated her backbone, or at least a few vertebra.
If Joe Biden accidentally starts World War III, when Robing Givhan sees the first nuke go off over DC, she will take careful note of what it's wearing.
"Chris Rock used to have a line in his act about there being no white person in the audience who would be willing to trade places with him."
Interesting. Do you suppose he meant to imply that he would be willing to "trade places" with any white person in the audience?
Still wondering, why, if Jada is the strong, black woman (and the butt of the joke) why she didn't go up and slap Rock?
I have more patience for the person the thug tries to beat into submission, Robin. But go ahead, tell us about why you care more for the poor thug.
maybe time for another bloggingheadTV? with Professora?
https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/1651
Still wondering, why, if Jada is the strong, black woman (and the butt of the joke) why she didn't go up and slap Rock?
Because she has people to do that for her.
Not a nickels difference between Will Smith's emotional off the cuff violence at the "disrespect" of his wife and LeCharles throwing a desk across the room at Troyastus for "disrespecting" his sneakers.
I guess you folks haven't read the article.
mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
I confess. I read the title, looked at the author, and made assumptions. After reading Rabel's comment, I went and read the article. I actually agree with 95% of it.
It doesn't try to defend violence like I presumed, and merely points out that Smith gets treated better than street thugs because of his wealth and power, which is objectively true.
Folks. Watch it when you read or hear this word. Meant to soften the otherwise difficult fact of a looming violence that acts on its own with folks unable to control their emotions. Because slavery.
True enough that Will Smith acted like a jerk, as did the audience of officially certified Beautiful People in attendance. But the reaction has been a bit overwrought. No idea whether the concern about copy-cat jerks showing up at comedy clubs will come to pass, but I suspect that the audiences at those events won't play down to Smith's level of privileged adolescence.
What happened is pretty easy to understand given all the information we have. Will's marriage is hardly orthodox. His wife is not only taking on lovers but talks about it in public to his face to his overt humiliation. He's clearly not happy with this situation. For some reason, perhaps love, perhaps something else, he refuses to leave her. It is weird, but it is what it is. It very much feels like he's trying to win her back, despite the fact that she's almost certainly not interested in the same relationship that he wants. She acts like she's doing him a favor.
You see it in the incident itself. He originally thought the joke was funny, then realized his wife was taking great offense, and then flipped a switch to fight for her honor, like any dutiful husband would do. Except his wife is not the dutiful wife and she treats him like garbage, so this makes no sense. Will's clearly not in a good place right now and when in that situation poor decisions are to be expected.
I am very much of the opinion that Will slapped not because he is a jerk but because he is in pain and he has no idea how to get himself out of the pain without losing something precious to him. It is unfortunate and I hope things get better for him. That said, being in Hollywood where things are warped by default, I am not optimistic.
Thugs earn extinction. End of story.
You can take the boy out of the ghetto…but you can’t take the ghetto out of the boy.
Who says the thug in a T shirt gets no sympathy? Seems he gets too much sympathy to me.
got givhan mixed up with givens [ex mike tyson]
Static Ping,
Contemporary .net culture has a term for Mr. Smith:
Simp.
Retail,
Right. The TIATS does not care about sympathy from the bourgeois culture.
He does, however, care about being released O.R., no bail.
Fred Drinkwater, yes, I agree this is simp behavior. The thing is usually a simp is a guy who has no chance to obtain the woman in question and is being used. In this case he got the girl and now is desperately trying to hold onto her despite this almost certainly being a terrible idea, plus he literally can have any woman he wants. It is unusual for a handsome, talented, wealthy, famous guy to act like this without being an abuser and there is no real evidence of him being an abuser.
It is easy to understand why it happened, but difficult to understand how this situation exists in the first place.
"Powerful black man" does zilch if Aaron Donald is the comedian. So, please...
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