Indeed, it’s about WHITE PRIVILEGE, which is why so many people are even still talking about this.
It’s not that Smith assaulted Rock or even why; it’s that he did it in a WHITE SPACE, making privileged WHITE people feel uncomfortable.
There are far too many people who look at this altercation as proof that “even the ‘good ones’ aren’t actually that good.”
Isn’t it, though?
If you could name one single privilege those two men have that isn’t cancelled out by being Black men in possibly the most racist country on the planet then I’d listen. Until then
It kind of was, he either meant to hurt him or he didn’t. These things can too easily get out of control.
Please read your own post. You threw out the fictional hypothetical of a woman being slapped instead of Chris Rock. @TornPaperNapkin ’s post is about that tangent and how harmful it is to derail the conversation into violence against women when that’s not the topic.
God, we’re all fucking idiots.
No, but way too damn many are, for sure.
I’m actually embarrassed for that reporter, because that was a Doocy-level question, one completely irrelevant to the WH.
Yeah. Seriously. In what world would any rational human honestly think this is the biggest story right now for the effing President?!?
Next they’ll be asking for WH comments regarding Pizza Rat.
I get that it’s an opportunity for a lot of us to sort through our feelings on a wide ranging set of important topics, but to think this is the “biggest story right now” is really disheartening. 
But it didn’t… We can spend all our lives imagining what if scenarios to confirm our own biases, or we can live in the world as it actually exists and deal with that.
A post in this thread made me think back to a financial services job I had back in the mid-1980’s. This was back in the day, so there was one printer for the entire office of 20+ people, right in the reception area within view of at least half of the employees. I was in the middle of a time-sensitive deal and went to stand by the printer so I could grab the papers as soon as they came out. Another employee, an empty-nester who had been hired solely because her husband was a friend (and a high-value client) to the president of the company, came rushing down the hallway and started arguing that I needed to leave because SHE had something coming out of the printer. I was confused, and pointed out that we could both stand there and wait, and grab our papers when they came out. Long story short, she ended up punching me in the stomach to get me to leave. Turns out, she was printing something personal and didn’t want to get caught.
At least 8 people, most of whom were higher level than either of us, witnessed the punch. Nobody said anything, in the moment or afterward. She was not reprimanded or fired.
This angry slap at the Oscars was not some unique episode of violence in the history of the world. If Rock & Smith work through it together to the satisfaction of both, then they are more law-abiding and mature than many other professional associates in workplace altercations.
which is seems like they have or are trying to…
Mod Note: I sometimes forget that I’m on the inside of the moderation queue looking in, and that things that are self-evident from the inside are not obvious on the outside, so here goes:
There are some flags being thrown on contentious opinions. This is unfortunate, but common. They are not being approved, and those who engage in this behaviour quickly end up with flag weights that do nothing. If you are flagging a post because you disagree with the opinion of the post, don’t.
However, in most cases, what has occurred is that the opinion of your comment was not shared by many of the members here, and they are letting you know that they disagree with it. This is not piling on or favouritism or an echo chamber. This is what happens when you post an opinion that is not shared by a majority of readers. This is how discourse is supposed to work, and the fact that many people disagree with your comments should give you pause to consider your position. It is not a conspiracy to silence your statement. If you are going to post your opinion here, you may be asked to defend or justify it. Them’s the breaks.
You have the privilege to post here within our guidelines. It is not a privilege that includes freedom from others telling you that they believe your position is wrong.
Thanks.
Obligatory:
Now with that posted, it must also be said:
Personally, I am really freakin’ tired of hearing about the whole damn debacle, and I still firmly believe that the only reason it’s still ‘trending’ is because it’s an excuse to feed into people’s own mythos of “superiority”; be it racial or moral, (or perhaps both, simultaneously.)
Who better to smuggle those fighter planes across the Polish-Ukrainian border 
For anyone waiting for OJ’s opinion, he doesn’t condone it either but he can relate.
I suspect anyone still interested in this incident at this point is less focused on the fact that the primary participants were privileged and more on the fact that they’re both Black men.
It’s a really useful concept, also for extended family. It illustrates how certain individuals can terrorise a community (especially members of less powerful groups like women or minorities) when the leaders of those communities don’t step up to shut them down.
Things have changed a lot for the better in workplaces since the 1980s. I have worked at two offices where a punching occurred (one in the 90s and another in the 2000s). In both cases, the assaulter was fired immediately. I don’t believe charges were filed in either case since that’s up to the victim, but there wasn’t any gray area or discussion of any sort- the person was fired full stop, no questions asked.
Just a slight note, as someone who has also seen a punch thrown at work, and had a gun pulled on them. No actions taken by the workplace, either case. The brandishing was witnessed by multiple people and one of them did call the police. Person was issued a misdemeanor brandishing ticket and prosecuted. I refused to testify. Person still convicted and fined.
Whether or not charges get filed isn’t up to the victim. It’s up to prosecutors.
But this incident is something that happens in hundreds of thousands of bars every night, and is usually finished off without charges, police involvement , or anything of that nature. It’s usually settled by the people talking to each other, coming to their senses, walking away, etc. It’s not just an american problem, it’s an everywhere problem, and if the prosecutors charged on every witnessed case of mutual affray or assault in this country, we’d have fuller jails than we do now. For something that can, and should at least try to be mediated first before we start throwing people in jail.
But because these are black men, far too many people in this country are jumping straight to “THATS A VIOLENT FELONY” and all this. It’s a school yard tussle. It’s a frat-boy slap fight. It’s definitely not something that should be lauded, or even accepted, but jumping straight to a violent felony strike on california’s 3 strikes law is a bit over reacting and only happening to the level it is because it’s black people.
To be fair, sometimes it DOES end with someone dead. Of course, then police are called, etc… But yes, there are often confrontations that are resolved without someone getting really hurt.
For sure (and I’m sorry those things happened to you). I didn’t mean to imply all workplaces are all good now in this regard. We still have a long way to go, especially in blue collar workplaces, and in more conservative states. But the incidents I referred to were at CA tech companies where they much prefer sexual harassment (which happened to me a lot) over physical violence. 
