{"id":64491,"date":"2022-04-05T15:10:01","date_gmt":"2022-04-05T20:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=64491"},"modified":"2022-04-05T15:10:03","modified_gmt":"2022-04-05T20:10:03","slug":"controversy-at-the-academy-awards-ethical-issues-arise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=64491","title":{"rendered":"Controversy at the Academy Awards: Ethical issues arise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>BY: PRESTON BURROWS<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThat was the greatest night in the history of television,\u201d Chris Rock said after the now infamous slap from Will Smith\u2019s hand fell across his face.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This incident happened at the 94th Academy Awards ceremony when Rock made a G.I. Jane joke about Smith\u2019s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. The joke might have been directed at Pinkett\u2019s shaved head.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many consider the joke to be in bad taste as Pinkett has recently been open about her struggle with alopecia, where the immune system attacks hair follicles and causes hair loss.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This incident was so extreme that there were rumors the Academy would take away Smith\u2019s first and only Oscar Award. However, the only significant backlash from the incident was Smith resigning from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts &amp; Sciences.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many people had opinions about the incident and took to social media to share their thoughts. Celebrities also used their social media to voice their opinions. And if they didn\u2019t, various reporters asked about the incident to see the celebrities\u2019 responses.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tiffany Haddish, in an interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/movies\/oscars-2022-tiffany-haddish-responds-to-will-smith-chris-rock-smack\/\">People Magazine<\/a>, said that Smith\u2019s actions were \u201cbeautiful\u201d and meant so much to her because the moment was a Black man standing up for his wife.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other celebrities did not share the same thoughts as Haddish.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In an interview with Gayle King, Jim Carrey calls Hollywood \u201cspineless\u201d and that he is \u201csickened by the standing ovation\u201d Smith received. Carrey agreed that the Academy should have escorted Smith out right after the slap.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the Academy, Smith was asked to leave after the assault but refused.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This occurrence has brought up ethical questions, such as whether comedians are safe on stage anymore or when does protecting a loved one cross a line?<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fort Hays State University\u2019s Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Peter Tramel said that many ethicists would agree that responding to insulting jokes with violence is wrong.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tramel noted that Smith did not lose control of his anger during the moment he got up and slapped Rock.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cPeople who lose control don\u2019t theatrically walk up and slap; they charge and use fists.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tramel added that if any adult were as thin-skinned as Smith pretends to be during the Oscars, they would get into at least 20 physical fights before their 30s.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cChris Rock claims that he did not know about Smith\u2019s wife\u2019s alopecia condition; he thought that her baldness was a fashion choice. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true, but if it is, then his joke was not especially insensitive in its intention \u2013 at least not any more than any of his other jokes,\u201d Tramel said.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Smith has since apologized for his actions in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/willsmith\/?hl=en\">Instagram<\/a> post.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI was out of line, and I was wrong. I am embarrassed, and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness,\u201d Smith wrote.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Smith resigning and some of his projects being delayed\/canceled due to the controversy, some users on Twitter have found this backlash to come off as racist.&nbsp;<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A whole new conversation is set for the following weeks as Louis C.K. won a Grammy after being accused by five different women of sexual misconduct.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The newest question remains unanswered: Does cancel culture disproportionately affect Black people in the entertainment industry?<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY: PRESTON BURROWS \u201cThat was the greatest night in the history of television,\u201d Chris Rock said after the now infamous slap from Will Smith\u2019s hand&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":64492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,12390,55],"tags":[14567,13997,441,11658,13885,8095],"class_list":["post-64491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-editorial","category-opinion","tag-chris-rock","tag-editorial","tag-opinion-2","tag-oscars","tag-preston-burrows","tag-will-smith"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/oscar-2103653_1920.jpg?fit=1920%2C1200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64493,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64491\/revisions\/64493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/64492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}