I don’t know why I’m writing this post, but a part of me feels it is necessary to say something even though I know I am wasting my time, not just because only one or two people will actually read this, but because who gives a fuck about what happens in Hollywood? Seriously, why are so many people so consumed with and fixated on what happens with celebrities and entertainers? It’s as though they are as important, or more important than themselves, as well as their families, friends, and loved ones. I don’t watch the oscars, I mean, I’ve never been a movie buff or someone who is deeply interested in movies. If I see five movies each year, that is a lot. However, when I was a kid in the 1980s I watched a ton of movies since my mother worked at a video store and was constantly bringing home new releases, but that was a long time ago, and now I hardly watch any movies. If there’s a book I would rather read the book, but I digress, I know, this has nothing to do with what I’m about to post, but I feel some background info is necessary, especially when I am about to post on a subject I never write or tweet about. What I am about to say is from a truly observational perspective as someone who has little to no interest in Hollywood and the movie industry.
The Chris Rock and Will Smith PSYOP. If anything, it was good for future ratings. For the following two days it was the number one trend on twitter. Everyone weighed in and shared their opinions. The official story was Chris Rock delivered a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s alopecia and Will Smith reacted by walking up on stage and slapping Rock before returning to his seat, at which point Rock replied: “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me!” Smith then yelled at Rock: “Keep my wife’s name out your fucking mouth!” And when I first watched it, a couple hours after it happened, and people made slow motion clips and the audio was there for everyone to hear, I’m not going to lie, my initial gut reaction was I thought it was scripted from the moment I watched it unfold. I didn’t know anything about the incident, I didn’t read anything about what happened, in fact, the first thing I did was watch a “Japanese tv video” of the event, and from the moment I saw Will Smith stand up and head toward the stage, I was like, What are they doing, a skit? That’s what I was thinking to myself. I thought the whole skit was a joke, the slap, the “keep my wife’s name” shit, everything, I thought from the moment I saw it: This shit is fake. Not fake in the sense of “it didn’t happen,” but rather, fake in the sense of, this is a script written by the writers and producers of the useless awards show that has exuded patriarchy and racism for nearly a century. Fuck the oscars, they don’t even deserve a capital O.
But the Rock-Smith PSYOP, of course that’s what I’m going to call it (such-and-such PSYOP, that’s my signature classification for the majority of shit that is or isn’t circulating in the so-called news) and the Rock-Smith PSYOP is yet another example of racism in mainstream entertainment, let’s be real, black entertainers are ultimately subservient to the Hollywood executives who are mostly white. It’s another example of portraying black people as insensitive (Rock) and violent (Smith). Black people fighting. Black men acting chivalrous. Viewership of the academy awards has been on the decline for more than a decade and the Rock-Smith PSYOP conveniently rejuvenated their brand. It doesn’t matter whether you believe it was real or fake (scripted) because that is irrelevant. A super famous world renowned black actor was portrayed as violent, and he was subsequently banned from attending the academy awards for the next ten years. Smith ultimately apologized and said the academy’s decision was justified. How cute and convenient. What a fucking joke. Personally, I believe the entire shit was scripted, in the sense of this: Rock was told to make a joke about Jada’s hair and Smith was told to defend his wife by walking up on stage and slapping Rock. Yes, I believe he was instructed to slap him, not punch him. A man who defends his wife typically punches the offender. But not Smith. He’s like, I’m gonna slap that bitch. I couldn’t make this shit up if I tried. Do you really think that Smith gives a fuck that he can’t attend the oscars for the next ten years? Rumor has it he doesn’t even like going to the oscars, and that’s why he’s a no-show sometimes. He can still win awards, for what it’s worth, he got to keep the award he won on the night of the slap, and he should win another award for best performance during an oscars skit.
Black people are a political football. And political doesn’t necessarily refer to politics of government, it can refer to politics in general. The politics of society, culture, identity, race, etc. Divide and conquer. Black men are insensitive and violent. Always cracking jokes and fighting. Protecting their mute women who cheat on them with their son’s friend, but they have an open marriage, that’s the story, or so it goes. But for some reason, I can’t stop thinking about how black people here in America are a political football. Nothing more, nothing less. Politics are deep inside everything. Politics are ubiquitous. Divide and conquer. And, because of the Rock-Smith PSYOP, I also learned that white people are not allowed to comment or opine on the Rock-Smith PSYOP, and that it’s a “black folks issue” or “only concerns black folks.” I mean, that’s what I read on the antisocial media, so it must be true. But, for some reason I keep going back to the political football and the words of the great late and timeless Malcolm X:
“Politically the American Negro is nothing but a football and the white liberals control this mentally dead ball through tricks of tokenism: false promises of integration and civil rights. In this profitable game of deceiving and exploiting the political politician of the American Negro, those white liberals have the willing cooperation of the Negro civil rights leaders. These "leaders" sell out our people for just a few crumbs of token recognition and token gains. These "leaders" are satisfied with token victories and token progress because they themselves are nothing but token leaders.”
That quote is only one piece of a much larger speech Malcolm X delivered in 1963. At the time, Malcolm was still a member of the Nation of Islam, and still referring to his leader as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. It should be noted that some of what Malcolm said throughout the speech did not reflect the views he espoused after he denounced Elijah, left the NOI, and followed “true Islam” (not my words lol). However, his observations in 1963 were spot on, and still true in the present as black Americans are still sadly nothing more than a “mentally dead ball” controlled by white liberals “through tricks of tokenism.”
I know I’m late to the game and I should’ve posted this weeks ago, if not months ago, but my reason for not doing so would require its own post or explanation. Bottom line (I hate that I use that phrase) is this: The Rock-Smith drama saga is just another divide and conquer psychological operation, whether orchestrated by Hollywood writers and producers or wholly organic, it is nothing more than a means to put black violence under a microscope for everyone to judge and critique simply because American culture is a subjective and self-centered narcissistic devolutionary juggernaut of racist, elitist, supremacist, corporatist, and misogynist mores and systems. Ostensibly, black Americans and their centuries-long struggle for civil rights and putting an end to systemic racism can only be viewed through the lens of violence: gang violence, police violence, domestic violence, professional sports violence, or in the case of the Rock-Smith PSYOP, entertainment violence.