The image appears in many daily newspapers in Europe and the United States: Will Smith slapping comedian Chris Rock, author of a hurtful joke about Jada Pinkett Smith, the actor’s wife, suffering from alopecia, an autoimmune disease causing hair loss.
across the Atlantic, USA Today chose to highlight the multiple comments caused by this violent act, for which Will Smith, who won the Oscar for best actor, finally apologized to Chris Rock on Monday March 28.
If Will Smith’s behavior has been widely condemned – including by the Academy of the Oscars – on social networks, the reactions have been diverse.
“Some black women saw in this incident a welcome image of a black man protecting the dignity of a black woman. For victims of domestic violence, hitting and then proclaiming in his acceptance speech that ‘love makes you do crazy things’, Smith propagated the dangerous myth linking love to violence. Some whites have wrongly concluded that blacks are inherently aggressive and violent. Some say they saw a man in pain.”
The newspaper observes “very different moral reactions, shaped by our identities”.