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Will Smith

 I'm human; all the Will Smith material was mesmerizing to me.


Here's what I noticed: If you took Will Smith to task, you were possibly racist. If you didn't take Will Smith to task, you were possibly helping the spread of a macho pro-violence toxic awfulness all through the world.

I'm sympathetic to both positions. I did think that white people tended to clutch their pearls a bit excessively about Will Smith; by contrast, think about Reese Witherspoon. In 2013, America's sweetheart was riding along with her intoxicated husband, who was stopped and cited for DUI. Witherspoon chose to harass the officer, who was just doing his job. "Do you know my name?" Witherspoon asked. "You're about to find out who I am. You're about to be on national news!"

All this seems just about as embarrassing as Will Smith's behavior, but I can't remember the same national revulsion, back in 2013. Maybe I have a foggy brain.

(Note that Witherspoon's choices actually could have resulted in the death of a motorist or pedestrian.)

Now Smith is apologizing again, and The Ringer feels the performance is disingenuous, and also, some critics think Smith should return his Academy Award, with a declaration, i.e., "I'm not ready to receive this."

Mostly, I regret that the writer James Marshall isn't around; I can see him turning the Smith event into a George/Martha hippo story; the prose would have irony, and tension, and some kind of twist.

I do know that I've loved the Smith discussions; I've loved them so much more than, say, "Encanto," or "Nightmare Alley," or "West Side Story." I just can't look away.
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Comments

  1. Adolfo ProfumoAugust 4, 2022 at 6:15 PM

    Thank you for sharing your inspiring perspective.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ReaderAugust 5, 2022 at 4:55 AM

    ....And another mystery is why Chris Rock wrote such a bland joke. The "GI Jane" joke just doesn't seem like final draft, or even rough draft, material.

    ReplyDelete

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