Jason Nichols, senior lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland, joins Cheddar News to discuss the mixed reaction following the Academy banning Will Smith. 

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Academy Bans Will Smith From Oscars for 10 Years

thank everyone on cheddar news Will smith facing a 10 year ban from events held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for slapping Oscars presenter chris rock during the 94th Oscars last month, but the reaction of the film's Academy's decision friday was met with some mixed results, ranging from some who felt it was well deserved to others who felt that the punishment was just too harsh. Joining us. Now to discuss is our friend Jason Nichols, senior lecturer in the african american studies department over at the University of Maryland. Jason. Always good to have you here. So let's start with that 10 year ban that the academy put on Will smith. What's your reaction to that? Is that too harsh or just or too harsh? Too lenient or just right here? I found it to be a little excessive. I think we need to move on from this. Will has apologized. I think his first apology was a little bit incomplete, but his second apology was more complete. He apologized to chris rock to the academy to the audience. I think it's time for us to move on. I think he should have gotten some sort of a punishment but To take him away from all academy-related events, including virtual ones for 10 years. Uh, sounds like it was a little excessive in my opinion. And what do you think? Also the fact that Chris Rock hasn't even spoken about this Chris Rock has been seeing skyrocketing ticket prices for all of his shows, but he has not addressed this whatsoever. He's sort of as insinuated that he wants to get paid to sort of talk about this maybe like a netflix special or something. But how do you sort of think Chris Rock's handled this whole situation here? Well, I think chris Rock has actually handled it very well. I think he doesn't want to throw will smith under the bus. I think he realizes that this was a moment of poor judgment by will smith and I think he's ready to move on. But you know, I think he will have to tell the story at some point and talk about it and talk about the experience. But I thought he handled it perfectly that evening, he didn't, you know keep on or try to egg it on or anything like that. And then later on he is handled himself with class and he made sure that Will smith was not arrested, did not take away from Will smith's moment and the Williams sisters moment and everyone who worked on that film and I think that that was an important moment and I think chris Rock should be commended for that. Do you think race um that both of these individuals are, are men of color played a role in any of this? And do you think that the punishment would have been exactly the same if if somebody that was a white man walked up to chris rock and slapped him in the face here. Well, I'll just tell you baker honestly if a white man had gone up to Wilson to chris rock and slapped him, I would be living. But I think the punishment, you know, I'm not sure, I can't really speculate what, what would happen. We do know that the board of directors for the Oscars is largely white and largely male, but they have gotten more diverse. And as a matter of fact, I think Whoopi Goldberg is on the board of directors, Excuse me, the board of governors. Um, and I think that they gave the punishment Uh that many people were calling for. I just think it was very much excessive. I think that will Smith has learned his lesson uh, and I think he should have gotten a punishment, but 10 years is far too strong. We in America like second acts, we like redemption stories. Matthew Belloni over a puck news had this interesting thing that he posed over the weekend, which was let's say will smith who by the way, he can still be nominated and can still win another Oscar during this 10 year span goes and does an independent movie and is potentially nominated for an Oscar here and he sort of gets this giant sort of applause and acclaim here. Do you almost see that potentially being a scenario here that in many ways will feel will smith will deem himself and we as a culture, will forgive him based off of all of this. I mean, absolutely, we love to tear people down when they're on top and then bring them back up I think will smith definitely has the talent and the ability to come back and come back even stronger than before. Um so I'm, I'm excited for that. I've always been a will smith fan. I'm still a will smith fan and I think I said last time I was on this show that you know, he and I are from the same block in philadelphia. So I'm definitely rooting for Will smith to come back and for chris rock to continue his success. He has a lot of interesting projects that could be up for Oscars coming up pretty soon. I know there's a film called Rustin about Bayard Rustin uh the african american gay man who organized the march on Washington coming and chris rock is in that. So I'm looking for them both to be successful moving forward and for us to move beyond this moment and recognize the talent that they have and see them for the, the incredible actors and comedians that they are. Yeah. And on top of all that look, will smith has a production company that up until this moment with the Oscars was churning out a lot of big hits with bel air. You have Red Table Talk, you have Cobra Kai as well. And you even had some analysts expecting that the valuation of his production company was about $600 million. Are you worried that maybe that potential projects might dry up here and that people should separate the production company from maybe will smith, that they're angry at will smith here. I absolutely think so. I think uh you know netflix and and a couple other, I think streaming services have postponed some of his projects and I think that that was a little bit hasty. I think we as a society maybe it was a slow news uh moment but we need to move on beyond it and recognize that there are a lot of people's livelihoods particularly post pandemic that hinge upon some of these projects. There are a lot of people who are not necessarily the big executive producer who are looking for these projects to happen, looking for those paychecks. And I think it's a it's a mistake to make it all stall over that one, 15 2nd exchange Jason, I have about 40 seconds left with yet there's also a campaign out there. At least I've seen on social media, people trying to get chris rock to host next year's Oscars, Would you join that campaign? Do you want to see chris rock rock host this? Yes, I think chris rock is hilarious and not even because of this incident or because he was slapped. I want to see chris rock hosted because chris rock is a great host because chris rock is funny because chris rock is talented and I think we're we're getting all of that lost in this and it seems like it's some sort of uh you know, attempt to make him feel better, but it really should be about the fact that he is an incredible comedian and you know, I think he would do as well, if not better than a lot of the people that they've had in the past. So yeah, I joined it based on that alright, Jason Nichols, always good to see a senior lecturer in the african american studies department over at the University of Maryland.