We are so politically correct that a moment of honesty is a cause for celebration.
And such a moment also highlights hypocrisy. Wait, more on that in a moment.
At Sunday night’s Academy Awards, comedian Chris Rock took center stage.
Jay GreesonRock, who can be among the funniest people on the planet, was announced as the host for Hollywood’s biggest night months before the “Oscars So White” controversy became the most overblown headline since “Dewey Beats Truman.”
So Rock stepped into the peril-ridden spotlight as America watched, waiting to blast him on Twitter for either being overly critical or cleverly sidestepping the issue.
He did neither. He talked a lot about race through the entirety of his opening monologue.
He ran the gambit from biting criticism – “This year, in the ‘In Memoriam’ package, it’s just going to be black people that were shot by the cops on their way to the movies,” he said.
“We got a black Rocky this year. Some people call it ‘Creed,’ I call it ‘Black Rocky,'” Rock said. “And that’s a big, that’s an unbelievable statement. I mean, ’cause ‘Rocky’ takes place in a world where white athletes are as good as black athletes.”
It’s a funny bit of commentary, and that’s something Rock brought to the social conscience Sunday.
He spared no punches, calling Hollywood racist, which assuredly pains the Left Coast, the liberal capital of entertainment. He balanced that by taking aim at Will Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who jump-started the “Oscars So White” campaign after Smith was snubbed for his efforts in “Concussion,” which underwhelmed at the box office.
Rock on Pinkett Smith: “Jada is going to boycott the Oscars. Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”
Rock on Will Smith: “You get mad. ‘It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated.’ Yeah, you’re right. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for ‘Wild Wild West.’ OK?”
Rock’s monologue was nearly perfect. In fact, in the shark-filled waters that is Twitter and the rest of the social media swimming pool, the lone sticking point was Rock’s reference to black people having “real things to protest” back in the 1960s.
In truth, the fact the Internet morality mob could find that kernel to complain about is the highest testament of Rock’s performance.
As a society, we love to complain and are loathe to listen. This faux outrage started with a bellyache and left Rock holding the bag. He turned that into a silk sack, and beyond the Internet disdain the only negatives from Rock’s speech were it set an unreachable bar for the telecast and it magnified the double-standard by which our moral outrage runs.
Think of it this way: What if Steve Martin or Neil Patrick Harris had been penciled in to host the Oscars? Do they tackle the topic or, quite simply, could they?
Our problems are not small, but they get overblown quickly and solved slowly. The lack of open and comfortable discourse only fuels that.
Rock offered a moment of clarity from a Hollywood that has become consistently duplicitous.
For example, when Sam Smith received his Oscar on Sunday, he paid tribute to the gay and lesbian community as an openly gay man. That’s his right, and good for him. His personal life has nothing to do with his talent and his talent was being honored.
But what if I had a problem with that? It would be met with an avalanche of outrage.
Now, replace Smith’s scene with what happened during Tim Tebow’s short-lived NFL career. He was routinely chastised for being openly Christian. Folks were happy to demand Tebow not throw his faith in the public’s face.
Are these not similar conversations that would behoove us all to have?
Chris Rock showed us it could happen, even on a national stage. He highlighted the racism and the daily fight it takes to confront it while exposing a faux, first-world problem like Will Smith’s lack of a nomination being a racial issue. Rock delivered a message the entire nation needed to hear, and he did it in a one-way conversation.
Imagine if we all participated with that kind of openness. And better yet, imagine if we all listened.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com. His “Right to the Point” column runs on A2 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.