The Will to do Better

I’m no fan of showbiz awards shows. I think they lack integrity and very rarely reward excellence. However, they are highly regarded by people in the industries; and they do like to be recognised and honoured. At this year’s Oscars all Will Smith had to was dress up, get to the venue, smile and wave, sit his ass down, pick up his award, give a speech, smile and wave again, sit his ass down; smile and wave some more and then leave. Instead he sat down in 2022, and then decided to get up in the 1920s and play out the dated “he done wronged my woman” trope and be a knave. So now him deciding to play the fool has us all looking like chumps and debating whether it’s ok to assault another person over an “insult”. 

As a Black man I am part of a larger community that has had to acknowledge and address historical and endemic violence by Black men towards women, children and the community in general. Particularly physical and emotional violence towards women. While tackling violence is a work in progress I had hoped that within the Black community there was acceptance that the pattern of violence that we had been seeing was wrong and needed to stop. Reading a lot the reactions to the ‘Oscars slap’, it is clear the problem of violence by Black men is as big a problem as it has ever been. 

No one should expect celebrities to be role models and they have a right to conduct their lives free from presumption and undue expectations. However, actions have consequences and when a person chooses to slap another on live television in front of millions around the world then you can expect ‘the butterfly effect’ to come into play. I’m sure that it is likely that in the week following ‘the slap’ there will be probably around five homicides or attempted homicides where the perpetrator would have had Will Smith’s action in mind before committing the act. They are going to think that after Will Smith they can’t now be caught slipping; and need to show that they are not punks. It has been unfortunate to see so many people trying to normalise this type of behaviour as being necessary in defence of his wife. One would have hoped that such people would be able to distinguish between protecting and defending a person. 

No one can say exactly what went through Will Smith’s mind in the moments before he stepped on stage to commit that egregious act but we all know what probably shouldn’t have. Over the coming weeks I’m sure he will be presented with many opportunities to give his perspective on what happened. I can only hope that whatever explanation he gives is honest and responsible. 

Stop! You're Killing Me

Modern society has been blighted by a plague of killings and a fascination with killers. We live in world where depicting killing has become normalised and in fact popularised over generations. Almost every major religion makes frequent references to killing as a way of propagating its beliefs or maintaining its integrity. National governments have installed the threat of war as a deterrent. Government sanctioned killing by agent or drone are rife. Nationalistic causes have largely adopted killing as an attention grabber and negotiation leverage. The news media literally salivate at the prospect of reporting murders and deaths in any context. Book, film, tv and social media are dominated by killing and gratuitous violence.

Tragically we now live in a society where people too often resort to murder to take what they want, avenge a slight or assuage hurt feelings. One can only pray that resorting to murder to resolve knotty issues doesn't become the norm. It seems to be a consistent theme in everything we read and watch.

It is difficult to imagine us evolving into a kinder and more gentle society when killing and maiming have become skills to most desire. Violence in our society won't abate until we turn away from the gratuitous enjoyment of killing and violence. Killing is a reality of the world we live in but we have become dangerously desensitised to its destructiveness.