Letter: What if Tom Hanks had made 'The Slap'?

How would we react if Chris Rock's joke was directed at Tom Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, and Hanks charged the stage and slapped Rock?

In keeping with the Oscars, that act would have been as shocking as Sidney Poitier's character slapping Larry Gates' white plantation owner character after Gates slapped him in Norman Jewison's 1967 movie "In the Heat of the Night."

The accomplishments of Tom Hanks would be erased by a stupid act done for love. His motivations would not matter, only what he did. More importantly he would be judged by the race of his victim. Would that be right? If we are serious about ending violence, then race shouldn't make any difference and justice should be blind to race and privilege and the consequences of Will Smith's actions should be real.

He shouldn't get a pass because he is a well-liked celebrity. True justice is treating those we like the same as those we may not like.

Maybe Will Smith is hoping the Academy will "white people that thing" (Will Smith's quote as the character Deadshot in the 2016 movie "Suicide Squad") and make it go away.

If no action is taken because it was Black-on-Black violence, then what progress has really been made in addressing the alleged tolerance of Black-on-Black violence by NIMBY white people because it is "better them than us?" All I am asking is that Will Smith be treated like Tom Hanks would be treated. Am I wrong?

David Clark

Libertyville