‘The View’ Co-Hosts Decry Focus On Race In Will Smith Slap Flap

UPDATE, with video In the third consecutive day of ABC’s The View kicking off the show with a discussion of Will Smith’s Oscar slap of Chris Rock, moderator (and Oscar Board of Governors member) Whoopi Goldberg and co-host Sunny Hostin decried public debate that focuses on Smith’s race.

“People keep saying, oh, they’re going to think of Black people the wrong way,'” said Goldberg. “Well, let me tell you, they should be looking at us and saying, Oh, ok [Rock] didn’t indulge.’ There’s nothing wrong with what [Rock] did so there’s no reason for anybody to have any issue with Black people. You have an issue with Will Smith and what he did. He doesn’t represent every Black person on the planet.”

Watch the segment below.

Hostin then said she’s heard from friends who worry that the Oscar slap “plays into the narrative that Black people are inherently violent and Black men in particular are dangerous and scary and ‘if Will Smith behaves like that then oh my goodness that’s where Black people are.’ I reject that, I reject that. What Will Smith did was immature and it was childish and and it was violent but that was on Will Smith and no one else.”

Hostin repeated her assertion from yesterday that the focus of discussion should be on Rock as the victim, especially in light of a recently resurfaced podcast recording in which Rock described being bullied as a child. She added, “My understanding from Chris Rock’s brother Tony Rock is that Will has not approached Chris and his family,” adding she thinks the situation “requires some sort of phone call” rather than merely the public apology Smith has issued.

Responded Goldberg, “I think when everybody stops looking that may happen. There’s just too much heat.”

Goldberg also expressed frustration that people seem surprised that Rock did not respond to Smith’s violence in kind. “I want to ask people, Why do you think [Rock] would have indulged in a brawl on a stage in front of three billion people? Why wouldn’t he be the adult?”

Goldberg later added, “Do not assume that someone is going to make the wrong move because someone else did. I don’t want to hear it anymore. Because why wouldn’t [Rock] do the right thing? Why assume? Is it an issue you have with what people look like or what you think they are?”

CHRIS ROCK ON BEING BULLIED AS A CHILD: Two months before Will Smith struck him at the #Oscars, Chris Rock recounted on a podcast how a violent incident from childhood impacted him as an adult – #TheView co-hosts and guest co-host @TaraSetmayer discuss. https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/YtLxI70rW5

— The View (@TheView) March 30, 2022