Chris Rock jokes that he didn’t hit Will Smith back at the Oscars because his parents ‘raised’ him not to fight ‘in front of white people’

Will Smith and Chris Rock seen in separate photos taken at the 2022 Oscars.Jae C. Hong/AP; Chris Pizzello/AP

Chris Rock said that he didn’t fight back against Will Smith at last year’s Oscars because he was “taught” not to fight “in front of white people” by his parents.

Smith slapped Rock during the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony after the comedian made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia.

Rock spent the last eight minutes of his new Netflix special “Selective Outrage” addressing the slap and joking about the Oscar-winning actor and his wife.

As he wrapped up, Rock spoke about why he didn’t hit Smith back: “A lot people go, ‘Chris how come you didn’t do nothing back? How come you didn’t do nothing back that night?’ Because I got parents, that’s why. Because I was raised.”

The comedian added before dropping his mic: “And you know what my parents taught me? Don’t fight in front of white people.”

This final joke proved divisive on social media as some people pointed out that Rock had no qualms criticizing Pinkett Smith “in front of white people.”

Philly Mag editor Ernest Owens tweeted: “Misogynoir in comedy is Chris Rock joking that Black people don’t fight in front of white people while proceeding to call a Black woman a bitch in front of white people after being slapped for disrespecting a Black woman’s hair in front of white people at another event. Sure.”

Will Smith slapping Chris Rock onstage during the 94th Annual Academy Awards at Dolby Theatre on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California.Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

While Rock did not target Pinkett Smith’s alopecia again in his new set, he did refer to her as a “bitch,” and joked that people called her a “predator” for having a relationship with her son’s friend, August Alsina.

Author and Andscape senior writer David Dennis Jr. wrote: “The most Chris Rock thing about all of this is him screaming that you don’t fight in front of white people but not even considering what it means to make jokes about a BW and her hair in front of white people.”

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Last year, amid the controversy over the slap, many Black women said Rock’s public joke about Pinkett Smith’s lack of hair was “disrespectful.”

Sheila Bridges, who previously spoke with Rock about living with alopecia for his 2009 documentary, “Good Hair,” wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post: “Shame on you @chrisrock Didn’t we sit down and talk at length about how painfully humiliating and difficult it is to navigate life as a bald woman in a society that is hair obsessed? As if life isn’t challenging enough out here as an unprotected black woman?”

Also in the comedy special, Rock revealed that he got his daughter kicked out of school to teach her a lesson and criticized Meghan Markle for saying that she was unaware of the royal family’s long history of racism when marrying into the family.

“Chris Rock: Selective Outrage” is available on Netflix.

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