Will Smith accepts the Best Actor Oscar for King Richard at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Calif., March 27, 2022. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) New Black Hollywood is resetting the terms of race, gender, and art.
Will Smith deserved his Academy Award at Sunday night’s Oscar ceremonies — not for his mush-mouthed performance in King Richard but for his more instructive display of Millennial black male confusion.
No one should feel superior to what has been called Smith’s “lack of self-control” when he walked on stage and slapped comic Chris Rock, or to Smith’s teary-eyed conflation of shame and ego when he later accepted an Oscar as Best Actor. Both moments ripped the lid off the Oscar charade...