I do not condone Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. It seems that there is little concern about part of this story. Making jokes about someone’s medical condition is not funny, it is malicious. It can demean and humiliate the victim, in this case, Jada Pinkett Smith.

Mrs. Smith has been open about her medical condition, alopecia, and how it has impacted her. Many people think it’s funny if suddenly hair starts coming out in clumps. No big deal, it’s just hair, right? No, it is a lot more than that and if it happened to you or a loved one, it would be frightening. Did you laugh when Donald Trump made fun of Serge Kovaleski, who has arthrogryposis, a congenital condition affecting the joints? His audience laughed. Would you make a joke about a child with epilepsy having a seizure or a woman who had a mastectomy?

How about a person dying from ALS or cancer? Is it appropriate to make jokes about a person who has had a leg amputated? How about a veteran or sexual abuse survivor suffering from PTSD, are they fair game for jokes?

To me, Chris Rock crossed a line that should never be crossed – demeaning a person by making a joke about their medical condition. That was a malicious attack and nothing about it was funny to me. I was appalled at the joke and people laughing at it. It seems that making jokes about a person’s medical condition is acceptable. Why? Because all anyone writes about is the slap. I think we should consider how disturbing it is when making jokes about anyone’s medical condition is acceptable. If it was your spouse or child how do you think it would make them or you feel? What happened to empathy?

 

Mike Grove

Belgrade