To preface—the purpose of this article is not to condone or antagonize Will Smith’s slap against Chris Rock. Merely, it is the starting point at which we will unravel The Academy’s twisted way of dancing around scandal when it is convenient for them.
On March 27, 2022, the 94th Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles. An event meant to celebrate A-list actors and films, the Oscars went off-script when it was comedian Chris Rock’s turn to announce the Best Documentary winner. Before he was able to announce the victor, Rock threw in one improvised joke about soon-to-be Best Actor winner Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. Specifically, Rock said “Jada, I love you—G.I. Jane 2, can’t wait to see it” in reference to the actress’ shaved head. The situation then escalated unbelievably fast, leading to Will Smith going onstage and slapping Rock across the face and shouting “Keep my wife’s name out your f*cking mouth!”
This moment has been viewed across all social media millions of times and has been subject to many memes. For context, Jada Smith’s shaved head is a result of alopecia, an autoimmune disease that leads to hair loss. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion regarding the slap, but the issue at hand in this article specifically is not whether Smith was justified or not. Rather, how the Academy and the general public responded to the incident.
The Academy has publicly condemned Smith’s action, taking to Twitter on March 28: “The Academy does not condone violence of any form. Tonight we are delighted to celebrate our 94th Academy Awards winners, who deserve this moment of recognition from their peers and movie lovers around the world.” This is where a problem of hypocrisy bubbles up to the surface. Will Smith has since resigned from the Academy, and people are pushing for the Academy to revoke his award. However, this raises the question: where has this public outroar been when white male aggressors win an Oscar?
One example of this hypocrisy lies with Roman Polanski. In 2003, Polanski won Best Director for his film The Pianist. However, when Harrison Ford announced Polanski’s victory, Polanski’s absence was brought to light. The audience stood and clapped eagerly, but where was the winner? Well, it turns out he had fled the country. That’s right, Polanski was not present to accept his award because he was convicted of having sexual relations with a 13 year old girl. Yet, the Academy had no problem honoring his directorial work for The Pianist, awarding him an Oscar and praising him nonetheless.
To say that The Academy does not condone violence of any form is a blatant lie. White male predators such as Polanski, Harvey Weinstein, and Woody Allen are a few of many figures to have won Oscars and not receive any backlash from the Academy. The Academy promotes the hyper fixation on scenarios like the one between Will Smith and Chris Rock, as it involves two people who are not cisgender, straight white men. White men are untouchable in The Academy because they are at the reins of the operation. From 2010 to 2020, 74 nominations went to BIPOC artists, while 2011 alone saw 72 nominations given to white people. Historically speaking, The Academy does not support victims of white male sexual predators—and generally speaking, suppresses the voices of women as well as BIPOC. Founded by the white man and controlled by the white man to this day, The Academy lacks any credibility in its spineless claim to “not condone violence.”