Will Smith accepts the Actor in a Leading Role award for ‘King Richard’ on March 27, 2022 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images) We’re so used to hearing that the biggest factor defining America today is systemic racism that when other factors show up—such as class or celebrity—we make a lot of noise hoping no one will notice.
That is what’s happening now with the Will Smith saga. Every soul in America knows that if a janitor had smacked Chris Rock, he would have been escorted out of the premises and put under arrest. That’s because a janitor, whether white, black or brown, has neither wealth nor fame.
That complicates the picture for the peddlers of skin color. You see, once we start looking at things like class and celebrity, different skin colors come together. You have rich and famous white, black and brown people here, and working-class white, black and brown people there.
That pretty much describes the Academy Awards. The rich and famous Hollywood crowd comes in all skin colors, while the workers behind the scenes—the grips, drivers, technicians, janitors, etc.— come also in all skin colors. One class goes here, the other goes there.
Megastar Will Smith got away with his assault on Rock because he had class privilege. His skin color was irrelevant. White privilege would not have saved an unknown white janitor committing the same crime. His skin color would have been irrelevant. He’s a lowly white dude, after all, with zero clout.
Any scenario where “skin color is irrelevant” is seriously threatening to those making a fortune on anti-racism. Have you noticed how hardly anyone has mentioned systemic racism when discussing the Smith and Rock story? That’s because we’re dealing with two highly privileged individuals who happen to be Black.
Any scenario where “skin color is irrelevant” is seriously threatening to those making a fortune on anti-racism.
That very category– privileged individuals who happen to be Black—must send shivers down the spine of anti-racist millionaires like Kendi and DiAngelo. If wealth and fame start to trump race, who will pay them $20,000 a day to help America manage the never-ending complexities of race?
Race is so lucrative because it’s immutable. If I’m in the “oppressor” class because I’m white, that status will never leave me. I will always need those expensive anti-race consultants to help me work through my white privilege status.
Class and fame, however, are anything but immutable, which is why they threaten the anti-racism industry. Race is static; class is dynamic. Race nurtures victimhood; class offers hope to grow and move up. Famous Black people like Smith and Rock are quintessential American success stories because they made it regardless of skin color.
None of this is meant to downplay the long and painful history of slavery and racism in America, or imply that racism doesn’t exist. It does, and in one form or another, probably always will. The point— the crucial point—is that race is not the only factor influencing Black people’s lives. There are millions of poor Blacks, for example, who share the same pains and challenges as millions of poor whites. Crafting policies to address those problems has little to do with skin color, because in that social class, all skin colors are in the same boat.
Perhaps the most compelling argument not to make systemic racism the defining character of America comes from our greatest anti-racist hero: Martin Luther King. When King preached the ideal of a colorblind society, he wasn’t absolving America of its racist sins or ignoring the steep hill to get there. He was keeping our collective eye on the big prize. That big prize was not a reiteration of a systemic condition but the articulation of an achievable and inspirational dream.
Black people like Will Smith and Chris Rock have climbed that mountaintop. Now we ought to judge them not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. Their wealth and fame may give them a color-neutral privilege, but it doesn’t let them off the hook.
If King were alive today, he might look at Will Smith in the eye and say something like, “I don’t care what your skin color is, or how rich and famous you are. What you did was violent, wrong and inexcusable.”
If King were alive today, he might look at Will Smith in the eye and say something like, “I don’t care what your skin color is, or how rich and famous you are. What you did was violent, wrong and inexcusable.”
Judging ourselves not through the lens of skin color, wealth or fame but through the lens of character is, ultimately, the real prize, the real mountaintop we all must climb– whether we’re a megastar or a janitor.
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