As everyone is painfully aware of, there was a disgraceful moment during this year’s Oscars. During the event, host Chris Rock made a slight jab at actress Jada Pinkette Smith, saying “Jada, G.I. Jane 2, I can’t wait to see it,” as her shaved haircut was reminiscent of her famous movie character. As most of the audience laughed, Jada’s husband and popular actor, Will Smith, was not too pleased at the joke. 

Smith got out of his seat and ascended the stairs of the stage towards Rock before slapping him right across the face in front of the entire room of people and the millions watching from home. Rock was very noticeably shocked as he tried to play the whole thing off as a joke saying, “Wow, Will Smith just smacked the s**t out of me.” As Smith returned to his seat he repeatedly said, “Keep my wife’s name out of your f***ing mouth.” 

His outburst was in response to the fact that Jada has been openly struggling with alopecia. Alopecia is an autoimmune disease where the body mistakenly attacks the hair follicles which causes hair loss. 

This obviously left a sour atmosphere for the rest of the show, especially after Will Smith won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in “King Arthur.” Then in the following days, Smith issued a public apology to Rock through Instagram and has now been banned from the Academy Awards for 10 years. 

The whole situation is a mess. From the joke to the slap and to the Academy Awards lack of effort in dealing with it. None of it should have happened. While it is commonplace for hosts of award shows to interact with the crowd through light banter, the joke was unnecessary. While Jada has confidently worn a shaved hairstyle, nobody knows if it could still be a rather sensitive subject. It is also just inappropriate to joke about a medical condition in a public setting no matter how the affected feels about it. 

Though, the reaction to it was just ridiculous. There was absolutely no reason to escalate the situation to the point of violence. The issue should have been privately discussed after the show like any subject of conflict should be. The slap just made Will Smith and those associated with him look bad. 

The Academy Awards’ lack of action in the heat of the moment was also asinine. While there was talk that they deliberated on whether he should leave, they did not remove him from the theater as he was still in the running for an award. This did not help the situation because it showed a lack of response to wrongdoings which ultimately got them into more trouble. They had complete authority to escort him from the show if they wanted, but they chose to sit idly by. 

Honestly though, everyone is just sick and tired of hearing about it. It is so ridiculous to see so many celebrities weighing in their opinion on it every second of the day when they were not directly involved. The situation needs to just be settled between the affected two parties and everyone else needs to take a step back. While this was an issue, there are way more significant events happening in the world and this just pales in comparison of importance.