*“I am a Black man in Hollywood-in order to sustain my position, I can’t get caught slipping, not even once, I had to be perfect at all times.” Will Smith wrote those words in a candid memoir some years back. They were perceptive, and spot-on words.
Unfortunately, in that one dumb and embarrassing split-second in which he barged onto the Academy stage and slapped comedian Chris Rock, he forgot his own words. Worse, he forgot that that misstep he warned about as a self-cautionary note, has implications far beyond just his unthinking moment of rage. It’s those implications-not the slap-that offer fresh teaching moments.
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In that ugly moment, Smith transformed himself into America’s racial bad boy—again. It’s the shortest of short steps to think that Smith can be depicted as a caricature of the terrifying image that much of the public still harbors about young and not so young Black males. Then that image seems real, even more, terrifying, and the consequences are just as dangerous.
Many thought that former President Obama’s two-term tenure in the White House buried finally negative racial typecasting and the perennial threat racial stereotypes posed to the safety and well-being of Black males. It did no such thing. Immediately after Obama’s election teams of researchers from several major universities found that many of the old stereotypes about poverty and crime and Blacks remained just as frozen in time. The study found that much of the public still perceived those most likely to commit crimes are Black. It also showed that once the stereotype is planted, it’s virtually impossible to root out. That’s hardly new either.
This essay/comentary “More than a Slap, a Teaching Moment” continues at The Hutchinson Report.
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