Hoping an Image Goes Away

by Ernie McCray

Oh, I hope
that the image
of seeing a Black-on-Black Crime
that came out of nowhere
right in front of me
on my big screen TV
will someday escape my mind.

It was such an ugly sight to see,
the vision of a man,
Will Smith,
whom I associate with laughter and glee,
doing just that, in one moment
chuckling gleefully
to Chris Rock’s comedy
and then in the next moment I see
him in a full strut,
slapping the comedian’s face
while he’s got people laughing all over the place,

nearly knocking him on his butt,

and my jaw dropped

like a tailgate on a pickup truck,

wondering “What the hell is up?”

And this attack

had come to a head

as a result of a bad joke said

about Jada Pinkett Smith’s

shaved head

and Will declared that what he did

was an example of

“art, imitating life,”

and “love making you do crazy things”

such as “fiercely defending one’s family”

like the man he portrayed

in a film that earned him an Oscar

to write about on his resume.

It pained me deeply

listening to such a gifted Black man

claiming, essentially,

that going upside the head

of a gifted Black comedian,

whose routine

maybe got a little mean,

was somehow

protecting his wife’s

wellbeing

as though his wife

isn’t recognized

as a ball of pluck and fire,

a woman who roars

and can and has taken care of her

own being as the amazing woman she is,

meaning that

all he accomplished that evening

was shaming himself

and his family

and his fans

and the film industry

and Black folks, at large,

throwing a sucker punch

to an unsuspecting victim.

Man, I hope to never lay eyes

on such a sight again

but I’ve just got wind

that this man, first known to me

as a rapper and then

as the Prince of Bel-Air,

has apologized, seemingly sincerely,

and has admitted that his misbehavior

was, indeed, out of line,

a display of poisonous and destructive violence

that has no place in a world

where there’s a need for people

to be loving and kind

and willing to make amends

that can bring hostilities to an end,

lessons much needed for the survival of humankind.

This fills me with hope

that the images of this event,

although they’ll surely never completely go away,

will nevertheless

dim a little bit

down the way.

Let the healing begin.