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.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks Ernie for your always thoughtful words. I’m doing my annual “anniversary” visit to OB Rag and always appreciate finding you! I’m still wishing for a world w/0 war… And is the pier open?
Thank you for this, Mr. McCray! As a Queer Chicano cis man, this whole incident still leaves me with a sinking feeling in my stomach. Toxic masculinity has no place in our world, and this is not a river to which anyone wants to be led. There is no excuse for this type of behavior, and who knows how many people were triggered by this violence, and how many young children will take this incident to heart as permission to repeat in later years.
Ernie, your prose that you shared conveyed my thoughts completely. Another beautifully written story. love ? Kim
Ernie, her ‘eye-roll’ that was caught on camera was definitely all that people needed to see of the stupid joke about a crappy movie… She absolutely took care of it herself in my mind. A very strong person she is!
sealintheSelkirks
We’ll see if The Grammy’s have as much excitement as The Oscar’s last week.