March 29: Ukraine

Jada Pinkett Smith Shouldn’t Have to ‘Take a Joke.’ Neither Should You. Thick skin comes up often in the context of comedy. Done well, comedy can offer witty, biting observations about human frailties. It can force us to look in the mirror and get honest with ourselves, to laugh and move forward. Done less well, it leaves its targets feeling raw, exposed and wounded — not mortally, but wounded. ..... We often see this when comedians want to joke about race, sexual assault, gender violence or other issues that people experiencing them don’t find terribly funny. If you can’t laugh along, you are humorless. You’re thin-skinned. You’re a problem. ....... During the 2022 Oscars telecast, the comedian Chris Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s closely shorn hair. “Jada, I love you,” he said. “‘G.I. Jane 2,’ can’t wait to see it.” The audience, including Ms. Pinkett Smith’s husband, Will Smith, laughed, but she rolled her eyes, and her face fell. Her thick skin cracked. ....... Ms. Pinkett Smith has alopecia, a condition resulting in hair loss that disproportionately affects Black women. It was in poor taste for Mr. Rock to poke fun at her hair. He has reportedly said he did not know about her alopecia, but he probably at least knew that the joke would sting, since he produced the documentary “Good Hair,” about Black women and their often fraught relationships with their hair........ Ms. Pinkett Smith has spoken openly about her struggles with hair loss — which is difficult for anyone but especially hard in the sexist and image-conscious world of American celebrity, where women, especially, endure an endless litany of comments about their appearance, their sartorial choices, their relationships and anything else people can find to pick apart. ........ Mr. Smith apologized to Mr. Rock and the world on Monday evening via Instagram. ..... In his memoir, “Will,” the actor writes about the guilt he felt because, as a child, he could not protect his mother from his father’s abuse. ....... it was also a rare moment when a Black woman was publicly defended. ....... We also witnessed an example, last week, of a woman forced to wear incredibly thick skin as she was left largely undefended. During Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearings for the Supreme Court, the distinguished jurist endured all manner of insult, racism and misogyny from Republican senators asking ludicrous questions that were really opportunities for grandstanding. Judge Jackson was applauded in many circles for her calm and composure. ........

We understood that the only way forward for Judge Jackson was to remain composed, stoic, impervious.

We also noted that other than Senator Cory Booker, Democrats failed to protect their president’s nominee. The Senate Judiciary Committee apparently valued decorum over Judge Jackson’s dignity.

Late Night Tackles the Will Smith ‘Hitch’ Slap “It was so shocking,” Jimmy Kimmel said. “The only thing I can really compare it to is when Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ears.” ........ “Even Kanye was like, ‘You went onstage and did what at an awards show?’” Kimmel joked. ....... “No one could have predicted that the most controversial movie of 2022 would be ‘G.I. Jane,’ but it was,” Jimmy Kimmel said. ...... “Obviously, Chris Rock did not deserve to be slapped in the face for a joke. Will’s point of view is he was defending his wife, and that’s a tough position to be in because it’s damned if you do, Ted Cruz if you don’t.” — JIMMY KIMMEL ........ “To me, there’s only one more step to make this right: the Comedy Central roast of Will Smith, hosted by Chris Rock.” — JIMMY KIMMEL ........ “Let me say something as an objective observer: It’s never OK to punch a comedian.” — STEPHEN COLBERT ....... “I’ve got to say, Will Smith was offended by the joke and wanted to stand up to his wife. Fine. Challenge Chris to a duel or, if you really want to hit him, don’t laugh. It hurts more than a punch, I promise you.” — STEPHEN COLBERT ....... “And by the way, no one did anything. A whole roomful of people, no one lifted a finger. Spider-Man was there, Aquaman was there, Catwoman, all sitting on their hands. No one helped Chris Rock.” — JIMMY KIMMEL ....... “We will never stop talking about this. It was so shocking. The only thing I can really compare it to is when Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ears. Even Kanye was like, ‘You went onstage and did what at an awards show?’” — JIMMY KIMMEL ........ “That’s the worst thing Will Smith has ever done. Wait, I forgot about ‘Wild Wild West.’” — STEPHEN COLBERT ....... “This was the Hollywood version of your drunk uncle starting a fight, ruining the wedding and then standing up and giving a long toast to the bride and groom.” — JIMMY KIMMEL

‘To hide the coward’: how Will Smith’s personal history may explain his Oscars violence The actor, who hit Chris Rock at the Oscars for joking about his wife, has written publicly about his need to compensate for a childhood marred by domestic violence ...... “Will Smith just smacked the shit out of me,” exclaimed Rock. ...... Later, when Smith tearfully accepted his best actor speech, he went on to defend his actions by saying he felt compelled to defend his family. ...... In his autobiography, published in November 2021, the actor describes at length the appalling domestic violence he and his three siblings witnessed his father, William, inflict on his mother, Caroline. ...... “When I was nine years old, I watched my father punch my mother in the side of the head so hard that she collapsed,” he wrote. “I saw her spit blood. That moment in that bedroom, probably more than any other moment in my life, has defined who I am.” ....... Smith wrote that it wasn’t only the violence that traumatised him, but his own inaction in the face of it. ......... “Within everything that I have done since then — the awards and accolades, the spotlights and attention, the characters and the laughs — there has been a subtle string of apologies to my mother for my inaction that day. For failing her in the moment. For failing to stand up to my father. For being a coward. ....... “What you have come to understand as ‘Will Smith’, the alien-annihilating MC, the bigger-than-life movie star, is largely a construction – a carefully crafted and honed character designed to protect myself. To hide myself from the world. To hide the coward.” ......... Smith’s best actor acceptance speech contained frequent reference to a higher power, who he said was calling on him “to love people and to protect people and to be a river to my people”. ....... He also said that fellow best actor nominee Denzel Washington had cautioned him after the incident that: “At your highest moment, be careful, that’s when the devil comes for you.” ...... Smith said there had “never been infidelity in our marriage. Jada and I talk about everything, and we have never surprised one another with anything ever”. The actor has said that he hoped the couple’s openness will encourage others to have meaningful conversations about monogamy. ....... In 2016, when he was hosting the Oscars, Rock took aim at Pinkett-Smith for “boycotting” the event, in the year Smith failed to receive a nomination for the film Concussion. “Jada got mad, said she’s not coming,” said Rock. “Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited. ...... “You get mad,” Rock continued. “It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20m for Wild Wild West.”

Will Smith Apologizes to Chris Rock After Academy Condemns His Slap “I was out of line and I was wrong,” said Smith, who hit Rock at the Oscars after the comedian made a joke about his wife. The film organization opened an inquiry into the incident. ....... “The academy condemns the actions of Mr. Smith at last night’s show,” the film organization said in a statement. “We have officially started a formal review around the incident and will explore further action and consequences in accordance with our bylaws, standards of conduct and California law.” ....... Also not allowed is “intimidation, stalking, abusive or threatening behavior, or bullying.” ...... The incident unfolded Sunday night after Mr. Rock made a joke about the buzzed hair of Mr. Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who has alopecia, a condition that leads to hair loss. Mr. Smith responded by walking onto the stage of the Dolby Theater and slapping Mr. Rock, leaving stunned viewers wondering at first if the blow might have been scripted until Mr. Smith returned to his seat and warned him to stop talking about his wife, using expletives. ....... Behind the scenes at the Oscars, there were serious discussions about removing Mr. Smith from the theater, according to two industry officials with knowledge of the situation who were granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations. But time was short, because the best actor award, which Mr. Smith was heavily favored to win, was fast approaching, one noted — and stakeholders had varying opinions on how to proceed. There was also concern about further disrupting the live broadcast, the other said. ...... As the show went on, the actor Denzel Washington spoke with Mr. Smith during a commercial break. Not long after that Mr. Smith won best actor. (Mr. Smith said in his speech that Mr. Washington had told him: “At your highest moment, be careful. That’s when the devil comes for you.”) .....

Sunday night’s show was still the second least-watched Oscars ever.

...... Whoopi Goldberg, who is on the academy’s board of governors and has hosted the show several times, said on “The View” on Monday that she did not think Smith’s award would be revoked, citing Mr. Rock’s decision not to press charges. ........ Mr. Rock has teased the Smiths from the Oscars stage before. In 2016, when the Smiths boycotted the awards show because the nominees in the four acting categories were all white, Mr. Rock, that show’s host, joked about it. “Jada says she not coming, protesting,” he said. “I’m like, ain’t she on a TV show? Jada is going to boycott the Oscars — Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”

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And That’s How We Do It

— Jaden (@jaden) March 28, 2022

Many takes on here about Will Smith and Chris Rock, especially from people whose partners are not Black women (mainly white people).

I don’t care if it’s a joke or not, the amount Black women have to endure — people are tired of it. We have no idea what Jada has gone through.

— Frederick "Pre-order Patriarchy Blues" Joseph (@FredTJoseph) March 28, 2022

Putin’s Proxy Culture War There is, said Leshchenko, a pattern to Russian disinformation campaigns. This one started, he said, with anonymous social media accounts. Then it was propagated by Russian propaganda outfits like Russia Today, followed by Russian officials like Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Vladimir Putin himself. Finally it went global. In information warfare, Leshchenko said, it helps to have “international recognition” of fictitious claims. Elements of the American right were happy to supply it. ...... “The biolab conspiracy theory has taken over as the prevailing narrative on pro-Trump and QAnon websites like The Great Awakening and Patriots.” ....... Having watched Trump try to extort Zelensky, Ukrainians know it can be geopolitically consequential when crackpot Russian conspiracy theories gain a foothold in American politics. ...... “Moscow began forging a new role for itself at the helm of the global Christian right.” ...... Defending itself from Russia, Ukraine has been waging a globalized culture war of its own, trying to rally the world to an idealized liberal internationalism. Zelensky has framed Ukraine’s fight for survival as a fight not just for national self-determination, but for progressive modernity. ........ He speaks to the highest aspirations of Western audiences who’ve been starved for inspiration. ....... The ability of Ukraine to elicit international solidarity has been among its most potent weapons in this war.

Putin and the Myths of Western Decadence Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was, first and foremost, a crime — indeed, the war crimes continue as you read this. But it was also a blunder. In less than five weeks Putin has destroyed Russia’s military reputation, battered his nation’s economy and strengthened the democratic alliances he hoped to undermine. ....... Part of the answer, surely, is strongman syndrome: Putin has surrounded himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear. All indications are that he went into this debacle believing his own propaganda about both his army’s martial prowess and the eagerness of Ukrainians to submit to Russian rule. ........ But there’s also reason to think Putin, like many of his admirers in the West, thought modern democracies were too decadent to offer effective resistance. ...... Our vulnerability comes not from the decline of traditional family values, but from the decline of traditional democratic values, such as a belief in the rule of law and a willingness to accept the results of elections that don’t go your way. ...... Of course, the idea that loose morals destroy great powers goes back centuries. In the Hollywood version of history, the Roman Empire fell because its elites were too busy with orgies to attend to the business of defeating barbarians. ....... Modern wars aren’t won with swaggering machismo. Courage and endurance, physical and moral, are as essential as ever; but so are more mundane things like logistics, vehicle maintenance and communications systems that actually work. ......... Putin’s response to failure in Ukraine has been extremely Trumpian: insisting that his invasion is all going “according to plan,” refusing to admit having made any mistakes and whining about cancel culture. I’m half expecting him to release battle maps crudely modified with a Sharpie. ....... not a month goes by without further revelations that a large part of America’s body politic, very much including members of the political elite, has contempt for democratic principles and will do whatever it takes to win.

Concessions at peace talks may be little more than tactics, analysts say. “Russia is adjusting its goals to reality, because war is quite empirical,” he said. “It’s not a ruse to say that they are concentrating on the Donbas, because in reality that’s all they can do.” ...... “This is a chance for the Russians to consolidate, to regroup, to remove themselves from places out of reach logistically, where they have already run out of food and ammunition.”

In Kyiv, battleground for a nation’s soul, Ukraine tries to put Russia on the defensive. "But in the meantime, we're going to continue to keep strong the sanctions and will continue to provide the Ukrainian military with the capacity to defend themselves. And we're going to continue to keep a close eye on what's going on."