Too Far Or Just Right!? Lets Chat About Chris Rock’s Opening Monologue At The Oscars

<p>Now that the day has come and gone&comma; let’s chat about what really started conversations and debates from this years Oscars… Two words&colon; Chris Rock&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Since the moment Oscar nominations were revealed&comma; the discussion has been about the lack of diversity amongst the nominees&period; In fact&comma; there were so many black people NOT nominated that the hashtag &num;OscarsSoWhite was created&period; Many called for Chris Rock to step down as this year&&num;8217&semi;s host while others said there would be no one better for the job&&num;8230&semi; well after his infamous monologue&comma; you can be the judge&excl;<br &sol;>&NewLine;If you missed it&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube data-videoid&equals;"GBadiCVY-tk" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"1000" height&equals;"563" dock&equals;"&num;dock-slot"><&sol;amp-youtube><br &sol;>&NewLine;First of all&comma; his walk on song set the tone before he even had a chance to open his mouth&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Fight The Power” by Public Enemy&comma; unbeknownst to viewers&comma; would be the beginning of a great debate&excl;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Anyways&comma; he starts his speech with&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Man&comma; I counted at least 15 people on that montage&comma;&&num;8221&semi; referencing the 15 previously Oscar-nominated black people from the year before&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;&&num;8221&semi;Well&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m here&comma; at the Academy Awards&period; Also known as the White People&&num;8217&semi;s Choice Awards&period; You realize&comma; if they nominated hosts&comma; I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t even get this job&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s right&period; Y&&num;8217&semi;all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So at this point&comma; he’s called out the elephant in the room right&quest; Nope not yet&period; He offered a few more –what some are calling distasteful and uncomfortable—comments and then he opened a new can of whoopass&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;Why are we protesting&&num;8230&semi;the big question is&comma; why this Oscars&quest;&&num;8221&semi; He asked&period; He wasted no time answering his own question&period; According to Chris&comma; in 1962 and 1963 we weren’t protesting the Oscars because &&num;8220&semi;we had real things to protest at the time&period;They were too busy being raped and lynched&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He also inserted&comma; &&num;8220&semi;When your grandmother is swinging from a tree&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short&period;&&num;8221&semi; Not at all awkward to say in front of a room full of rich white folks&&num;8230&semi;yikes&excl;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Although the audience was littered with laughter&comma; Chris’ words lingered –even planted seeds of realism&period; Headlines went up and Chris is now accused of going too far&period; Steve Harvey and the rest of his morning show hosts tackled the issue this morning&period; As a fellow comedian&comma; Steve’s feedback on Chris’ statements was nothing but supportive&period; He said Chris is a comedian and he is using his art to make people feel uncomfortable about an issue that is very real&period; He has started debates and conversations within a few moments over an issue America’s been whispering about for years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Steve continued his support&colon; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Chris went too far&quest; What’s too far&quest;” He said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Lynching black folks is too far&comma;” and so for Chris to use the lynching of black people to prove a point was perfect strategy&period; Of course we’ve seen the opposing argument discrediting Chris’ statements suggesting that lynching is never something to joke about&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He also compared Chris Rock to Kevin Hart saying that Kevin is nonetheless an amazing comedian but when it comes to being able to tackle and issue such as race&comma; inequality&comma; and the destruction of black people&comma; Kevin just wouldn’t be able to make the cut&period; He said that is an issue Chris was within all of his rights and expectations to address&period; It sounded like Steve was actually expecting Chris to take that angle during his time hosting and feels he said nothing wrong&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Well not everyone is a fan of Chris Rock&&num;8217&semi;s standup last night as Shaun King penned his editorial to the NY Daily News saying that the comedian simply went too far with some of his jokes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In regards to the lynching remark&comma; King stated&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Listen&comma; I know Chris steps on toes for a living&comma; but I don&&num;8217&semi;t ever want to hear a live audience laughing about the lynching of our grandmothers&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t imagine the deepest&comma; darkest pain of any other group of people being used as a prime-time punchline&period; Not only that&comma; but we indeed live in an era where black bodies&comma; riddled with bullets&comma; choked lifeless&comma; Tasered repeatedly&comma; are strewn all over this country from coast to coast&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The question stands now who&&num;8217&semi;s right and who&&num;8217&semi;s wrong &quest; 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