Cindy Grosz: Will Smith Should Be Arrested Because All Lives Matter

Police officers can’t defend themselves; teachers can’t defend themselves. Store owners can’t defend themselves as merchandise is stolen daily.

Why should Will Smith be able to keep the Academy Award he received just minutes after going on stage and slapping comedian Chris Rock?

For a decade, we have been taught through CRT and in headlines in the news that “black men are abused in our system.” We have paid billions to rebuild Baltimore, Ferguson and cities in Missouri.

Thank goodness for Smith that Chris Rock was black. Because if he wasn’t, the scene could have been a lot worse.

Yes, we can appreciate Smith’s desire to defend his wife, but how many other nominees and their families were the subject of jokes by Bob Hope, Billy Crystal and others that didn’t resort to vulgarity and violence?  Is Smith going to curse and use physical force on every stylist and fashion reporter who named Jada Pickett-Smith “worst dressed” comparing her green gown to “a patch of lettuce or a huge river of seaweed”

Smith was the favorite to win Best Actor. He knew he was going up there and would have his chance to respond. He should have addressed the joke with something like “Remember when Samantha from Sex In The City had cancer and took off her wig at a gala.  Jada is the role model for every woman who suffers from hair loss with medical issues and thank you Chris Rock for noticing her leadership and beauty. I am lucky enough to be by her side every day.

I will never forget the late, great Paddy Chayefsky at the Academy Awards of 1977.

After Vanessa Redgrave made an anti-Zionist (semitic) speech, the screenwriter made a statement, “I would like to say - personal opinion of course - that I'm sick and tired of people exploiting the Academy Awards for the propagation of their own propaganda. I would like to suggest to Miss Redgrave that her winning the Academy Award is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation, and a simple 'thank you' would have sufficed.”

A joke from a longtime friend didn’t require your most important professional moment to turn into a public service announcement that it is ok to physically attack someone who is weaponless in any situation.

How many black little boys will wake up each morning now and go to school and use their hands as a resort of communication because “the Fresh Prince of Bel Air” did?

The person who should be the most upset is Eric Adams, New York City’s black mayor. His city is a mess with crime and violence destroying it. Last week, Adams, together with the NYPD, tried to revive a “quality of life” policy to control crime. He is getting called “Uncle Tom” for this.

If the Academy does nothing about this, then shame on them?

Black, white, straight, LGBTQ, young, old, deaf and every member is saying it is okay to smack and possibly more. The academy is saying you can make a mockery of our televised show.

Silence is as good as supporting physical attacks on anyone, regardless of reason and excuse.

The Will Smith “slap and curse” is a true example of Hollywood hypocrisy. Smith, along with every person who wants you to give up your guns and buy electric cars, was celebrating massless in a group of people for billions to watch. All this while a war was ongoing and threats to kill a thespian colleague streamed across news channels as the award show was simultaneously being televised. Smith’s immediate reaction of “slap and curse” took “wokeness” to a new level.

Will Smith is the fifth black man to receive the Best Actor award. His character is based on a real-life dad/coach of tennis greats Venus and Serena Williams. A lot of media attention was directed at that “talking point.”

Will this moment set back awards for Black men? Or will it encourage more abuse? People won’t remember the award Smith won, but rather how he stole the attention of a show with anger and force.