Oscars 1973: John Wayne and Sacheen Littlefeather
When Will Smith recently slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars, there was a large outcry on social media about the violence of the act. Celebrities took to Twitter to document their reactions: Mia Farrow dubbed it the “Oscar’s ugliest moment,” while Judd Apatow took it even further by saying, “He could have killed him. That’s pure out of control rage and violence” (Hibberd). Some even compared it to the ongoing war in Ukraine: “Unfortunately intolerance continues to be on the rise no matter where we look. We see it vividly on display whether it be far off on the battlefields of Ukraine or right here in Hollywood on the stage of the Dolby Theatre,” said Jeffrey Katzenberg, who is the founder of Dreamworks Studios and former head of Walt Disney Studios (Graham). This comparison—an imperial war being compared with one man’s reaction to the very public insult of his wife—is insidious. Individual actions can be a reflection of societal norms, but they do not in and of themselves create these larger systems of oppression and violence.
The depiction of Smith’s slap as “out of control rage and violence” is a particularly problematic one from a racial standpoint. Black men (and women) are often characterized as more aggressive than their white counterparts, and their actions are routinely viewed through that lens. Because of this, black men tend to suffer harsher consequences for their actions than white men who do similar things. For an example, we can look back at another of the Oscar’s ugliest moments, when Sacheen Littlefeather appeared at the Oscars in 1973.
At the 1973 Academy Awards, Marlon Brando won an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in “The Godfather.” In his place he sent Sacheen Littlefeather, an Apache woman, to give a short speech explaining that he was refusing to accept the award and why. Littlefeather said that he was refusing due to “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry…And on television and movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee.” At that time, Native American protestors were involved in a bloody standoff against federal agents at Wounded Knee (Kotlowski).
Her speech was met with a mixture of boos and applause from the audience. Littlefeather later recalled, “I was given 60 seconds by the producer to make that speech or I would be arrested. John Wayne was waiting backstage to take me off. He had to be restrained by six security men” (Taylor). John Wayne suffered no consequences for attempting to assault a woman who simply gave a quick speech asking for her people to be represented and their sovereignty respected, but Will Smith is now banned from the Academy for ten years. Smith did not need to be physically restrained or pulled away from Chris Rock, but Wayne required six security men to hold him back. So the obvious question is this: Why is one slap considered by some to be unspeakably violent, while the attempted assault of an indigenous woman goes unpunished? The answer at least partially lies in the races of the people involved in each incident.
Works Cited:
Graham, Caroline. “Hollywood bigwig Jeffrey Katzenberg compares Will Smith's Oscar slap to violence of Ukraine war in clearest sign yet that actor's career may be over.” Daily Mail, 28 April 2022. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10764605/Hollywood-bigwig-Jeffrey-Katzenberg-compares-Smiths-Oscar-slap-violence-Ukraine-war.html
Hibberd, James. “Celebrities Condemn Will Smith for Chris Rock Slap at Oscars: ‘Pure Rage and Violence.’” The Hollywood Reporter, 28 March 2022. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/2022-oscars-will-smith-chris-rock-slap-celebrities-reactions-1235120687/
Kotlowski, Dean J. “Alcatraz, Wounded Knee, and Beyond: The Nixon and Ford Administrations Respond to Native American Protest.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 72, no. 2, 2003, pp. 201–27, https://doi.org/10.1525/phr.2003.72.2.201. Accessed 29 Apr. 2022.
“Marlon Brando’s Oscar win for ‘The Godfather.’” Youtube, uploaded by Oscars. https://youtu.be/2QUacU0I4yU. Accessed 28 Apr. 2022.
Taylor, Kate. “Sacheen Littlefeather, Marlon Brando’s one-time Oscars accomplice, on how Hollywood has changed.” The Glove and Mail. 25 February 2016. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/awards-and-festivals/film-awards/sa...
Related Links:
The Russian Invasion of Ukraine