About Last Night: Will Smith, Chris Rock, and the Trauma of ameriKKKan white supremacist Trickery

Minutes after Will Smith popped Chris Rock, the wolves began to circle, tongues flicked out of mouths, and chops were licked. I read Tweet after Tweet of white women saying that they were traumatized. There were vomited out directives from the “self-prescribed wise ones” that Mr. Rock should press charges. 

As is clear to Black Americans, from experience, We are treated as a monolith; when one of Us takes a negative action, breaks a law, or harms another, and the like, Black People, in the eyes of non-Black people, morph into one big black blob. Black People do not receive the Humxn dignity (or privilege) of having Our Lives and experiences as Black Humxns regarded through a lens of critical thought, empathy, benefit of doubts, nor, as the result of white supremacy and systemic racism. We are not given second chances. There are not many, if any, examples or consequences in the herstoryhistory of this violently stolen and violently gaslighting country when it comes to treating Black Americans with the same considerations as everybody else. 

However, when it comes to white politicians (trump et al), executives (elon musk), actors (mel gibson), directors (roman polanski); or inverted: brown children in cages, forever separated from their parents/guardians/loved ones; Haitians violently abused with whips and thrown out of the country—right back into the violence they were attempting to escape; a white Ukrainian woman with her children, flying into Mexico and trying for hours to get into amerikkka from the border and a random lawyer helping her do so, only to leave tens of hundreds of Central and South Americans and Haitians who had been trying and waiting for months to get into this duplicitous country being told yet again, “But not you” or "Wait, not yet." I hear nothing but crickets from these same people on these other matters. The brown and Black humxns fleeing sex-trafficking, violence, lack, war torn and criminal led countries, like the white Ukrainian and her children, should be let in just as easily. 

In the wake of yet another mass shooting at the hands of white boys and men, or Latino boys and men who think like, as well as want to be, white boys and men, the carnage of innocent, precious humxns has not yet dried on the asphalt before the mental illness Tweets and journalist benefit of the doubt comments ensue. I heard nothing of mental illness mentioned by the “The Devil’s Advocate-like” spital-spewing folks; just, “Lock him up!” No such considerations, even though, Will Smith’s enraged slap upon Chris Rock’s cheek and his apparent anger, seemed so incredibly out of character. 

There were no considerations of race and nuance in any of the posts and comments. Black People that shared such, are being attacked and shamed by the tongue flicking ones as “playing the race card.” white people think they’re traumatized? Black Americans and Black Peoples writ large, had to watch a Black Man hit another Black Man, humiliating him, in front of millions that hate Our resilience, Our depths of compassion and patience, Our “And still We Rise”—regardless of the amerikkkan withholding of opportunities benefitted to everyone else (think, New Deal home ownership and free college tuition). We watched a man that has been a “perfect black” for all the whites up till oscar’s 2022, be kicked to the curb before the chop lickers could say, “Take his oscar back.” No second chances for Will Smith. No second chances for Us. No genuine compassion for Chris Rock—whom I imagine feels thrown under the bus himself by a man He may have trusted and loved. I imagine he feels not only humiliated, but also, heartbroken. 

As a Black Womxn, I am well aware that We have always been made the butt of base jokes. Nuance. Moreover, those that stand up to protect Black Womxn are most often met with the vitriol playing out now by the inventors of violent gaslighting. Nuance. And once again, the monolith tip: “Now we’re all going to pay.”

There is so much nuance, herhistorical implications, race/gender implications, “boy, gal, stay in your places” implications, the joy of watching a Black Man [Person] crash and burn implications, racism/white supremacy implications playing out before us all—in not only this matter involving the two Black Actors, but in all things involving Black Americans of all ages and genders. 

I do not know what caused Will Smith to click—he looked crazed to me. I wondered, is this a Part of his true self, kept hidden? Or was it the years of living the trauma of being and living as a Black Person in amerikkka and the world, watching Black People murdered and Black Womxn [People] abused, hated, demoralized, and physically appropriated for bought body parts, while We are demonized for the natural real deal version? Black Americans [African Diaspora] are living with PTSD, and as far as I know, white and non-Black mental illness professionals and scientists are not saying or studying a peep about it. 

Chris Rock’s G.I. Jane joke at the expense of Jada Pinkett Smith was dated and not that great; however, to have another Black Man be the one to throw yet another Black Womxn, Will Smith’s Wife no less, under the bus, intimating Her [Our] ugliness, may have been one avatar microaggression too many for Smith’s Nice Guy sensibilities.