We’re nowhere near the end of slapgate, so here’s another comment from a celebrity, this time, Vivica A. Fox, who called the event “Black-on-Black crime.”
While guesting on Fox Soul’s Cocktails with Queens, Fox said that she was “absolutely shocked and saddened” about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock because of his impromptu joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith’s hair. Pinkett-Smith suffers from alopecia.
“…It was wrong place wrong time and…it just took the air out of the building,” she said, according to Bossip. “The gentlemen who won the award after him–uh, Questlove–his moment totally went away because everybody–you could just see it in the audience….”
She went on to say that she understands that it's been tough on the Smiths to endure the jokes they've had to deal with regarding their marriage.
She said, “[t]his is the consequence of opening up your world to the public. Here comes the jokes.” She also invoked the triggering statement of criminality when talking about Rock’s joke.
“To get up, walk across that Oscars stage and strike–it was Black-on-Black crime, and I was disappointed,” she said.
You can watch the full clip below.
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There are others who aren't going down this road of invoking Black respectability when talking about Slapgate.
Shadow and Act’s Brenda Alexander wrote in her op-ed how she felt Smith was standing up for his wife amid her struggle with alopecia.
“There’s nothing funny about a woman who has to come to terms with losing her hair in chunks in front of the world and sitting in an audience in an emerald green ball gown wearing diamonds and pearls doing her best to look and feel beautiful, only to be reminded of what she doesn’t have,” she wrote. No one knows the physical and emotional turmoil Pinkett has been through as a result of her condition. It’s only right for her man to save her at that moment.”
