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I had no plans to watch the Oscars. Absolutely none. Mostly because I don’t have cable. But also because I’m still holding down Jada Pinkett-Smith’s 2016 questioning of the award show.

In addition to the Academy’s lack of diversity and inclusivity, watching the Oscars feels comparable to eating mayonnaise straight from the jar. So I made the choice to do and watch literally anything else.

What’s ironic is that my chosen poison turned out to be stand-up comedy, while I cooked @chefkeysh stuffed shells chicken alfredo. I started with Ali Wong’s newest special Don Wong, giving her a few chuckles as I watched. Afterward, Eddie Murphy’s Raw popped up under my recommendations.

Now, I’m 24 years old (25 in May) and have somehow made it this far in life without ever seeing an Eddie Murphy comedy special. I’ve seen Bernie Mac live (because of my mom). I’ve seen Cedrick the Entertainer and Steve Harvey in the same special (also because of my mom). Hell, I watched the entire first and second season of In Living Color (still because of my mom). But never have I seen Eddie Murphy live. I believe my mom was protecting my virtue here because he really did get raw in this special. The joke that stuck out to me the most was the one about him getting an African wife named Mfufu because American “b***hes” are too independent. The entire bit was full of dehumanizing and degrading perceptions of African women.

Eventually, I ended up turning off the special before it finished and finding something else to watch. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Black people celebrated Murphy’s Coming To America and Coming 2 America — two films that allowed him to realize his problematic perceptions of Black women on the big screen. This discourse isn’t limited to the blatant colorism in Coming to America through the juxtaposition of Lisa and her sister, Patrice. Patrice’s character follows another archetype introduced by Murphy in Raw: a hypersexual dark-skin Black woman, while Lisa is the desirable light-skin partner.

What’s confusing is that Lisa’s character does not showcase Murphy’s ideal submissive partner. What’s equally confusing is Prince Akeem’s treatment of the submissive African characters in the film, whether it be the pallbearers that wash and dress him, or his betrothed Imani Izzi, who will do whatever he asked — Prince Akeem dismisses them. Compared to Lisa’s light-skinnedness, their submission was inadequate. And while Lisa didn’t do whatever Prince Akeem said, she did give up her entire life in America for him.

That’s just the beginning. I could go on and critique many of Eddie Murphy’s other films and their problematic tropes, but the main point is that, for me, Raw (filmed in 1987) reignited a conversation started by the LGBTQ community in response to Dave Chappelle’s 2021 comedy special, The Closer. When I woke up at 3:15 a.m. Monday morning to see the backlash of Chris Rock getting slapped at the 94th Academy Awards, the conversation continued.

However, what sparked my and everyone else’s intrigue was not the fact that Chris Rock was slapped on stage in front of millions of viewers worldwide, it was the why.

It’s difficult to dispute that male comedians, regardless of race, have built their platforms utilizing sexism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia and misogynoir. In addition to Eddie Murphy, Black comedic icons such as Will Smith, Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Cedrick the Entertainer, Steve Harvey, Katt Williams, Arsenio Hall, Tyler Perry, the Wayans, Black-ish’s own Anthony Anderson and many others can attribute their success to their persistent degradation of Black women.

So, when we consider that, Will Smith’s actions on Sunday were surprising, yes. Unwarranted, no.

Jokes like Chris Rock’s “G.I. Jane” are dehumanizing, degrading and are often at the expense of people without privilege or power in American society. As a result, these “jokes” work to normalize and perpetuate violence against those underprivileged people. Continually, as “violence begets violence,” it is important to recognize that Chris Rock’s joke, while rhetorical, was still an unacceptable act of violence against a Black woman. Will was just responding in kind because, as a Black woman in a shockingly white space, Jada could not.

What concerns me the most is that if Chris had joked about any other Black woman in that room, for any reason, they would not have had a Will Smith to defend them. Instead, they would have been forced to smile and endure — as Black women often do — or risk being labeled an “angry Black woman” that can’t take a joke. That is unacceptable.

Dehumanizing jokes are outdated and unacceptable. And it’s past time we let them go, especially because they’re not funny. They never have been.

B.J. Wright

Writing since March 2022 · 1 story contributed