Yeah, but the 'man must prove himself a man through violence' is an equally harmful mindset. Now, can I be 100% sure that's what spurred Smith on? No. But than neither can I say with certainty that Chris Rock knew about Jada's disability.
Also, apparently Chris Rock was severely bullied and beat up as a kid, so that slap might not have just been a sting on the cheek for him. You just don't put your hands on someone in a threatening manner, especially when you're bigger than them. Speaking from experience it can be really unsettingly to get physically assaulted out of nowhere, eventhough the act itself is "no more" than a slap to the face or a punch in the arm. Physical violence isn't just the physical, just as words aren't just words - they will leave an impact beyond the initial sting.
Saying that words have such an impact on people is so hard to quantify as well. It's easy to say that insults and words leave lasting mental impacts on people, however there are plenty of people that aren't effected by words at all, or are only so effected to be upset about ti for a few mintues before it goes away. So you have to assume that everyone around you is so sensitive that anything you say can be interpreted as an attack of some sort, or you have to assume you are in a room of decently adjusted people who can handle a couple jokes. It's fucking insane to put the blame on Chris for this because it is obvious that none of the jokes he told were done from a place of maliciousness.
The problem with assuming "words are violence" is you have to assume that everyone is weak in the mind and that words truly are potentially catastrophic to them, which isn't the case for a vast majority of people. These days, especially in hollywood, claiming you are victim or suffering from mental health is all the rage. Hollywood celebs are already narcissistic in general, though some more than others and as a result will say some wild shit to get some spotlight upon them. It's just the nature of it.
The fact that people try to quantify how the words were worst than the slap don't know what their talking about and are just picking their side of the fence on the issue for whatever reason.
Yeah that slap was a big shock to Chris, he thought those days were behind him long long ago. Being a small kid, humor is a fairly standard defensive mechanism and after making it a career there are just some things that adults should understand about jokes. No matter what Chris said, the joking around aspect should have been defense enough, because adults don't act this way. Not liking a joke is no grounds for violence PERIOD. What Will did was extremely pity and childish, no matter WHAT Chris said.
Go up to him afterwards and explain how the joke wasn't cool and 100% Chris would have been, "Hey I meant nothing by it, I apologize." DONE.
