New York State Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou (D) defended actor Will Smith's attack against comedian Chris Rock during Sunday's nights Oscar awards ceremony, saying Rock's joke about Jada Pinkett Smith's alopecia was violence and Smith was right to use violence in turn.
"It is violence to mock someone’s health condition and vulnerability," Niou tweeted. "It is violence to allow and excuse violence. It is violence to call for violence."
It is violence to mock someone’s health condition and vulnerability.
— Yuh-Line Niou (@yuhline) March 28, 2022
It is violence to physically assault someone.
It is violence to not take responsibility for violent actions.
It is violence to allow and excuse violence.
It is violence to call for violence.
"Direct violence, structural violence, cultural violence. Self-directed violence, interpersonal violence, collective violence. People are seeing and feeling all of these different layers of violence today weighted diff for diff folks and it will be directing America’s convo," she added.
Niou is not the only person with that line of thinking who defended Smith's actions.
Chris Rock’s one “joke” was rooted in misogynoir, texturism, & ableism. Degrading a Black woman, in a room full of her peers, on live TV.
— Get Her, Jade! (@keatingssixth) March 28, 2022
The fact ya’ll don’t see that as violent is beyond me.
"It was funny at first but when he saw the way that joke fell on Jada, it was no longer a joke to him. And he took it very personally. He took it as an assault on his black wife, on his black queen, on black women and that is the response that we saw from him," Marvet Britto told CNN on Monday.
