Chris Rock is once again under fire for remarks he made about Jada Pinkett Smith, this time saying she started the feud that led to him getting slapped at the Oscars.
In his new Netflix stand-up special, Selective Outrage, Rock, 58, addressed the infamous incident that saw Pinkett Smith's husband, Will Smith, walk on stage to slap the comedian in the face during the live Academy Awards broadcast in 2022.
Smith then yelled from his seat: "Keep my wife's name out of your f***** mouth," after Rock made a joke about Pinkett Smith's hair. The actress suffers from alopecia and previously opened up about the experience of losing her hair.
In Selective Outrage, Rock claimed Pinkett Smith started their feud in 2016 when she asked him not to host the 2016 Oscars. Rock asserted she wanted him to step down because Smith had not been nominated for his role in Concussion. But it was also during the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, which led to boycotts over the lack of racial diversity among nominees that year.
"Years ago, his wife said I should quit the Oscars. I shouldn't host 'cause her man didn't get nominated for Concussion. And then he gives me a f****** concussion," Rock said in the special, which premiered on March 4.
During the 2016 Oscars broadcast, Rock aimed a joke at Pinkett Smith saying nobody cared if she boycotted the ceremony because she was a TV actress and not nominated for anything.
"That's how it is – she starts it, I finish it, OK? That's what the f*** happened. Nobody's picking on her. She started this s***," Rock said during his Netflix special.
During Selective Outrage, Rock also said he didn't retaliate after Smith's slap because "I got parents."
"And you know what my parents taught me?" he added, "Don't fight in front of white people."
People took to Twitter to vent their outrage at Rock's comments, saying it was "misogynoir" and that he was "punching down" on black women. Rock also made a joke about Meghan Markle, saying she won the "light-skinned lottery" and should have known more about the British royal family before marrying into it.
"Misogynoir in comedy is Chris Rock joking that Black people don't fight in front of white people while proceeding to call a Black woman a b**** in front of white people after being slapped for disrespecting a Black woman's hair in front of white people at another event," tweeted writer Ernest Owens.
While legal pundit Exavier Pope added: Chris Rock called Jada Pinkett Smith a b**** and said Meghan Markle played the race card. Punching down on Black women. Clownery."
And singer Chika added: "chris rock is such a b****. you used an onstage moment to take a jab at a woman you have an off-stage grudge against, got the S*** slapped out of you (rightfully so) and now are using white people's clutching of pearls to paint yourself as a victim while continuing your tirade."
Chika also continued by telling Rock to "get over it" and that "you disgrace yourself the more you speak."
"Pls give it a gotdamn REST, christopher," Chika concluded.
Newsweek reached out to Rock for comment.
Black Hairstyles
In 2009, Rock produced and starred in a documentary about the importance of hair in the Black community, especially for women.
Entitled, Good Hair, Rock produced, narrated and co-wrote the documentary, which looked at "the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships, and self-esteem of the black community," according to its synopsis.
It explored the notion of "good hair vs. bad hair" in the Black community, which stems from the idea that kinkier textures are not as accepted in mainstream views of beauty. This topic was also explored by Brenda Randle, assistant professor at the College of Media and Communication at Arkansas State University.
"Good hair is often considered hair that is straight, silky and without tangles. Therefore, if the texture of African American's hair is thick, kinky and curly, does society view it as 'bad hair'?," Randle wrote in her essay "I Am Not My Hair; African American Women and Their Struggles With Embracing Natural Hair!"
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
