(NewsGlobal.com)- It was the slap heard ‘round the world.
The presenter for the best documentary at this year’s Academy Awards was comedian Chris Rock.
Rock is going to do what he does best, tell jokes. And he delivered a pretty mild one.
Will Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, was sitting in the front row. Jada claims she has alopecia, the disease where patches of hair fall out. (She posted pictures of her hair loss last December, and it seemed very minor and only visible because of the way she styles her hair, which is cropped extremely close to her scalp.)
Rock said he looked forward to seeing Jada in GI Jane 2, a movie starring Demi Moore in which Moore had a similar hairdo.
Will Smith rushed the Oscar stage and slapped the comedian in the face for referencing her hair. It is unclear if Rock knew about her alleged suffering.
Smith returned to his seat and screamed profanities at Rock. In an attempt to mitigate the awkward moment, Rock called it the “greatest night in the history of television.”
It wasn’t.
This scene was representative of impulsive behavior of the worst kind. We, as a culture, do not celebrate restraint, especially if someone is being “disrespected.” Perceived slights on one’s dignity must be met with a disproportional display of violence.
Ironically, Will Smith won the award for best actor and was given a standing ovation. He would have been accompanied by security to the exit if this was any other business with a modicum of ethical standards. Hollywood, as a company, does not possess these qualities.
Of course, not everyone was unsettled by the assault they had just witnessed. Democrat Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts applauded the televised battery.
Pressley, a member of Congress’s Marxist wing, believes that you have the right to batter someone who makes a quip about your appearance; or another person’s appearance, as was the case with Will Smith.
The left wants us to return to the days of mob rule and instant justice but then lectures us about taking “the high road.”
Pressley tweeted:
“#Alopecia nation stand up! Thank you, #WillSmith. Shout out to all the husbands who defend their wives living with alopecia in the face of daily ignorance & insults.”
With that post, a congresswoman endorsed physical assault because of words.
She then added, “Women with baldies are for real men only…boys need not apply,” implying that you’re a “real man” if you smack around a comedian that says something a bit hurtful.
After one of her colleagues warned her that the tweet would make Democrats look bad, Pressley deleted it.
