An MSNBC host over the weekend said white Americans should “sit this out” as controversy persists around Will Smith slapping stand-up comic Chris Rock during the Academy Awards last week.
Tiffany Cross, who anchors a weekend talk show on the left-leaning cable news network, interviewed actress Yvette Nicole Brown and TheGrio columnist Michael Harriot on Sunday.
Harriot claimed the Smith-Rock incident was an example of “how black people relate to each other” in a way that white people do not understand, “even though it happened to everybody [watching the ceremony].”
Brown chimed in, saying: “On Twitter, a lot of us were like, ‘Y’all sit this out for your protection,’ because when we need to have a conversation, we’re gonna have it.”
“Some people use their words, some people use their hands. It is what it is. In the black community, we understand that,” Brown said.
Brown later added that “violence is [not] the answer” and all three condemned Smith.
Cross and her guests said the Smith-Rock incident was commonplace in the black “family.”
Cross then interjected, saying she would “try to put this in context for our white fellow countrymen as best I can.”
“In really, truly black America, there’s a commonality amongst us all,” she said.
“If we went to a white person’s home and it was their family dinner, we were sitting at the table, and the mother hauled off and slapped the father and everybody at the table has an opinion,” Cross added.
“If I weigh in as the guest in this home and say, ‘Yeah, you guys are terrible,’ everybody’s like, ‘I’m sorry. When did you get an opinion? This is our family table,’” she said.
Cross is the host of a weekend talk show on left-leaning cable channel MSNBC.
“That’s what this moment felt like for many of us. There’s a nuance to what happened.”
Smith resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Friday in the face of possible suspension or expulsion from the organization for his on-stage slap of Rock.
Smith said in a statement he would “fully accept any and all consequences for my conduct” imposed by the Academy’s Board of Governors.
“The list of those I have hurt is long and includes Chris, his family, many of my dear friends and loved ones, all those in attendance, and global audiences at home,” Smith said in the statement.
Rock reportedly was encouraged to file charges against Smith when the LAPD showed up to the Dolby Theater after the assault, but the comic refused.
*story by The New York Post
