There are many layers and aspects to the #WillSmith @ the #Oscars incident, but I am surprised at how little of the commentary has been directed at Smith's betrayal of trust with the Williams family to be a trustee of their story. /1 fortune.com/2022/03/28/tox…
I loved the movie #KingRichard because it reminded me not only of the staggering odds that the Williams family overcame in producing not one, but two, all time, world class tennis players, /2 howtheyplay.com/individual-spo…
and documented how the parents trained and steeled their children against the abuse that they would most certainly face as they broke into the elite ranks of the white privileged world of competitive tennis. /3
Because of their race, the sisters not only had to muster the mental strength to play their sport at a world class level, but also had to control their emotions and not lash out in public, under any circumstance, even while their opponents could do so without consequence. /4
They have labored under circumstances not dissimilar to those faced by Barack Obama as he tried to attract enough white votes to be elected president in 2008. /5
Don't get me wrong, I am not saying these constraints on their comportment were either required or just, but they were most certainly reality. /6
Yet, in a flash, #WillSmith betrayed the trust the family had bestowed him with its legacy by engaging in a public act of violence in response to a detractor, something the Williams' have not done in their long and storied careers, /7
And to make matters worse, during his acceptance speech, Smith tried to appropriate #RichardWilliams ethos of protecting his family to justify the violence, when #RichardWilliams did the exact opposite. /8
This all in response to a tasteless Chris Rock joke. Surely the Williams sisters have endured far, far more abuse. /9 bleacherreport.com/articles/18085…
No wonder the Williams family looked shell shocked when the Oscar cameras briefly focused on them during #WillSmith's shambolic speech. /10
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