A US television host has claimed white people should not share their opinions on the Will Smith Oscars slap.
Tiffany Cross held a panel on her MSNBC show to discuss the now-infamous moment at the 94th Academy Awards, where Will Smith stormed the stage to slap Chris Rock over a joke made about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith.
The TV host kicked off the discussion, saying ‘everybody has an opinion and I’m sure you all are tired of talking about it, but we have to weigh in on it’.
The panel, made up of TheGrio columnist Michael Harriot and actress Yvette Nicole Brown, discussed The Slap and it was mentioned how the context of the incident is lost on white people.
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Harriot told his fellow panelists that the slap was ‘about how Black people relate to each other’, while Brown went one step further, saying the incident was a private matter among Black people that came out publicly.
“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," Brown said.
“If you put your nose in something that Black people need to discuss amongst ourselves, it happens.”
“I am not saying violence is the answer,” the actor added, condemning Smith for his violent outburst.
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The MSNBC host then took over, telling viewers that she will '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. If we went to a white person's home, and it was their family dinner, and we were sitting at the table, and the mother hauled off and slapped the father and everybody at the table has an opinion," Cross said.
“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’.
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“That's what this moment felt like for many of us. There's a nuance to what happened.”
The conversation ended with Cross wishing Smith and Rock go get the help they need.
Cross' comments that white people need to 'sit this one out’ has been met with fury, with some describing her statement as yet another 'stereotype of Blacks by Blacks'.
One person on social media wrote: "Tiffany Cross this morning MSNBC said white people shouldn’t comment on the Will Smith smack on Chris Rock. We have no right to and don’t understand what it is to be a Black man. I took offence to that."
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Another added: "Thanks @TiffanyDCross another stereotype of Blacks by Blacks. We just love to slap each other in the face and curse each other out in front of an international audience."
A third wrote: "It’s assault whether he’s Black, Asian, Mexican, white, etc."
Others agreed with Cross, however, commenting 'she's right'.
Another responded to a Twitter user who said everyone has a right to 'react to s**tty behaviour', adding that 'understanding and reacting are two very different things'.
Rachel Lang