White Privilege In Hollywood

On 3/27/2022, actor Will Smith slapped comedian Chris Rock during the 2022 Oscars for making jokes at the expense of his wife, Jada Pinkett, and her condition of alopecia areata, which has caused her to lose her hair. Personally, I do not think Rock crossed a line — Jada was present at the event, has been public about her illness, and is a well known name just like her husband — but that does not change the fact that how Smith has been treated since this incident is simply unacceptable, especially coming from Hollywood.

Smith quickly apologized for what he did to Rock and even resigned from the academy of his own accord, albeit primarily after large amounts of public pressure were put on him. Multiple film projects Smith was involved in have also been up on hold because of this incident, and Smith has been banned from the Oscars gala for the next decade.

In 1977, Roman Polanski was arrested and charged with raping a thirteen year old girl named Samantha Geimer, a crime which he later pleaded guilty to. Polanski fled to Europe — originally getting on a plane to London, England before eventually settling in France, where he already had citizenship due to him being born in Paris — and continued to produce and act in movies until he was arrested in Switzerland in 2009, leading to one hundred people in Hollywood signing a petition calling for his release. Actress Marly…