The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 3.28 The Truth About Will Smith's Chris Rock Oscars Slap, Alopecia, Internet Split, &

Episode Date: March 28, 2022

Go to https://beamorganics.com/defranco and use code DEFRANCO to get 35% off + Free Shipping on your first subscription AND 20% off every month after that!. OR get 15% off a one-time purchase News You Might Have Missed: https://youtu.be/lnOke8lJJJg TEXT ME! [phone] Get More Phil: https://linktr.ee/PhilipDeFranco – 00:00 - Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock at Academy Awards 07:59 - Sponsor 08:54 - Indigenous Tribes Sign Notice of Trespass Against Hotel That Banned Native Americans 11:09 - Ukraine Updates – ✩ TODAY’S STORIES ✩ Will Smith Slaps Chris Rock at Academy Awards: https://roguerocket.com/2022/03/28/will-smith-chris-rock-slap-response/ Indigenous Tribes Sign Notice of Trespass Against Hotel That Banned Native Americans:  https://roguerocket.com/2022/03/28/indigenous-sign-notice-of-trespass-against-hotel/ Ukraine Updates: https://roguerocket.com/2022/03/28/ukraine-neutrality-diplomatic-openings-russia/ https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/28/world/ukraine-russia-war   ——————————   Executive Producer: Amanda Morones Produced by: Cory Ray  Edited by: James Girardier, Maxwell Enright Art Department: Brian Borst, William Crespo Writing/Research: Philip DeFranco, Brian Espinoza, Maddie Crichton, Lili Stenn, Ben Wheeler, Chris Tolve Production Team: Zack Taylor, Emma Leid ———————————— #DeFranco #WillSmith #ChrisRock ———————————— Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sup, you beautiful bastards. Welcome back to the Philip DeFranco Show. Buckle up, hit that like button, and let's just jump into it. Y'all, of course, the first thing we have to talk about today is what happened with Will Smith, Jada Pink. My wife's name out your fucking mouth!

You know who, and Chris Rock. All right, so unless you've been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, you have seen the slap. Uh-oh, Richard! Oh, Richard. Oh, wow. Wow. Will Smith just smacked the out of me.

Which initially for a lot of people that were watching the US broadcast that ended up getting censored, a lot of people were like, okay, wait, was that a bit? But on the uncensored broadcast that were immediately uploaded to social media, we saw this back and forth happen. Keep my wife's name out your f***ing mouth!

Wow, dude! Yes. It was a G.I. Jane joke. Keep my wife's name out your f***ing mouth! I'm going to, okay? Oh, okay. That was a greatest night in the history of television.

Right, so what Will was referring to is just moments before this, Chris Rock made a joke about Jada's hair. She has a shaved head, he makes a G.I. Jane shaved head joke. But as you may not have known before this, and maybe I don't know if Chris Rock knew about this, she actually has a shaved head

because she has an autoimmune disorder and that can cause hair loss and balding, and so she decided just to shave it off. And then to make this just one of the weirdest nights of television, minutes after this whole thing happened, he ended up winning the best actor award. And we see him get the usual applause. He's hugged by the presenters on stage.

And in his speech, which I imagine had to be impromptu, he was talking about his movie, but also talking about what had just happened. Richard Williams was a fierce defender of his family. I'm being called on in my life to love people and to protect people. Now I know to do what we do, you gotta be able to take abuse, you gotta be able to have people talk crazy about you. I wanna be a vessel for love. I wanna apologize to the Academy,

I wanna apologize to all my fellow nominees. I look like crazy father, just like they said about Richard Williams. But love will make you do crazy things. Now for their part, the Academy initially released a statement saying it does not condone violence and just announced today that they will be launching a formal review of the incident.

Also regarding the slap, right, because a lot of people were like, isn't that just assault? How is he able to just still be there? With the LAPD putting out a statement saying that like everyone else, they were aware of the situation, but adding that the individual involved declined to file a police report,

which would end up sounding like the end of the situation later in the night. We had Will Smith being filmed, getting jiggy with it. P. Diddy later giving a statement saying, "'Hey, it's all squash, right? They're brothers.'" Though, notably today you had TMZ putting out a different report saying, "'According to a close source,

"'Chris Rock hasn't spoken to Will Smith.'" Also saying he didn't know Jada had alopecia. And so essentially saying he just thought, you know, she shaved her head, reminded him of G.I. Jane, quick joke. But regardless of what the reality is between the three people at the center of this story, the internet was just, for the last 12 to eight hours, it's been hot take after hot take.

Maybe the likes of comedian Tiffany Haddish who was there sticking up for Will, telling people, when I saw a black man stand up for his wife, that meant so much to me. As a woman who has been unprotected, for someone to say, keep my wife's name out of your mouth, leave my wife alone, that's what your husband is supposed to do, right? Protect you.

Even calling it the most beautiful thing. And she was not the only one going down this avenue of thinking. With some writing, personally, I'm tired of black women being disrespected on mainstream media and everyone thinking it's okay. That's why some of you can't comprehend Will Smith's reaction because you're so used

to turning a blind eye when black women are disrespected in public spaces. Also separate from the black woman angle, you had some defending Will because of alopecia, including representative Ayanna Pressley, who tweeted and deleted the statement, "'Alopecia Nation' stand up. Thank you, Will Smith.

Shout out to all the husbands who defend their wives living with alopecia in the face of daily ignorance and insults." Though after taking down that post, she clarified she does not condone violence. But still you saw a lot of people condoning the slap saying, "'Hey, violence meets violence. Arguing that Chris Rock punching down

and taking aim at someone that's suffering from an autoimmune disease, that actually equals violence. But also on the other side of this, you had people saying, no, Will Smith is 100% in the wrong here. With one of the more extreme and polarizing reactions coming from director Judd Apatow, saying in now-deleted tweets

that Will could have killed Chris, saying it was pure out-of-control rage and violence. With a string of tweets getting ratioed, he was hit with a massive amount of backlash, people saying that he was playing into the villainization of black men. But still, with a majority of less extreme reactions, you had people saying, no, this is just outright assault,

Will Smith is 100% in the wrong here. People saying things like, insane that Will Smith can assault someone at an award show and just sit back down in the front row and win an award and everyone is laughing and applauding him like Hollywood is honestly so. Some bringing it back to Will's speech and his mentions of love,

saying the violence he displayed was not love, that this is actually abuser language. Then, of course, you had tons of people in the middle essentially saying there are no winners and only losers in this situation. Saying things like assault is wrong, alopecia is a painful experience that many black women go through

and should not be joked about. Arguing the concept of being the protector can be a form of toxic masculinity. Black women are rarely protected and deserve to be protected. Violence isn't okay. Assault is never the answer. Also, this is the second time

that Chris has made fun of Jada on the Oscar stage, and tonight he went after her alopecia. Punching down at someone's autoimmune disease is wrong. Doing so on purpose is cruel. They both need a breather. Right, over the next 24 hours and really into the rest of the week, we're gonna see a million different takes

and different angles. For example, you have people like Max Burns saying, this is actually kind of connected to Scientology. Writing Will Smith almost certainly went through the Scientology courses that teach you to unapologetically use slaps and physical force to let a fellow Scientologist know they've done something wrong.

Saying it's remarkably common within the cults. With him then writing, "'Remember, the Smiths funded and managed an entire Scientology school called the New Village Leadership Academy in California to continue pushing this violent, insane ideology out to young people.'" And adding to those who would argue

New Village Leadership Academy is not Scientologist and the Smiths just decided to spend one plus million dollars opening the school for other reasons, you find me in non-Scientology Academy that includes L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetics as coursework. And saying, to be clear, Tom Cruise does the exact same thing though he uses verbal abuse in public instead of actually hitting a non-Scientologist.

It's called using the tone scale to promote compliance and it's a foundational part of Scientology. Also, you had people questioning Will Smith's headspace, one, in general saying, is he okay right now? Not only because of the slap in his words during the acceptance speech, but also when Chris Rock made the joke, it looked like he actually initially laughed,

though seemingly then looking at Jada's face and then taking action, which I think could be seen as weird, though granted, I'm only about halfway through the book. But in Will Smith's book, he is very vocal and transparent about his fears of being seen as a coward, noting in the part I just got to this morning that he wished he could be a guy like Tupac. And after two years of, I mean, just go on social media of just non-stop, haha, your wife

fucked, your son's friend jokes, probably worrying about seeming like a coward, not being worthy of her, he acted. That's not me justifying what he did, but it possibly explains part of his thinking around it. Because I agree with guys like Charlamagne who have said that this slap was probably only a little bit about Chris Rock and probably part of something much bigger that just happened to land on Chris's face. So if one of his goals was to get Jada's name out of people's mouths and for people to forget

and just move past the August having sex with her thing, that is a thousand percent not the case if you look at pretty much any of the memes. But with all that said, I have to pass the question off to you, where do you land on this story? Which of the cams that we've talked about do you land in and why? I'd love to know.

And arguably your reaction, and not just my audience, but the reaction in general, that's really what's gonna matter with this story. Because yes, laws are laws, but we as a society, based off of something that happened and our reaction to it, decide what is okay and what is not. And for me, this is gonna be a very interesting week, especially just listening to and watching podcasts,

especially from comedians. Because I've seen some comedians with alopecia going like, I don't even know what I'm supposed to feel right now. And for comedians in general, if you do this long enough, you are going to misfire with a joke, you're gonna punch down, there's gonna be an adverse reaction. So you're essentially putting yourself in a place of,

what happened here? Am I okay with that happening to me? Because already you have comedians like Tim Dillon tweeting words aren't violence their words Everyone needs to calm down and have a frozen yogurt and Kathy Griffin saying comedians have to worry about who wants to be the next Will Smith and comedy clubs and theaters? I don't know It's gonna be very interesting to see how all these chips fall But that's why definitely let me know your thoughts on this But from that I want to take a quick second to thank the fantastic sponsor today show beam many of you know I'm on this new mission

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Plus they're also offering you 15% off a one-time purchase with code defranco. And then I'm so excited I get to announce this, racism in America is over. Yes! Scratch that. One, because if you think it's over, you must have your eyes and ears shut all the time.

And two, because of this story at a Rapid City, South Dakota, where the owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel is under fire. And so the way this story starts is with a shooting between two teenagers at the hotel, both of whom were Native American, which prompted Connie, the woman at the center of this story, to write on Facebook that she cannot, quote, "'allow any Native American on property

or in Shearer's Sports Bar,' right, the hotel's bar and casino. And as far as why, she says she can't tell who is a bad native or a good native, which is notable for two reasons. One, because of the racism, and two, because it also seems like bad business. Right, morality and decency aside,

at least 11% of Rapid City's residents identify as American Indian or Alaskan native. But back to the racism part, of course, this outraged many community members, which I and River sueoux Tribe Chairman Harold Frazier calling it racist and discriminatory and asking for an apology. The city's mayor, Steve Allender,

also speaking out saying neither the shooting nor the hotel's response reflect the city's values. We also saw a revolt from inside the hotel itself with the entire bar staff, some other workers, and even the manager who is himself indigenous quitting in protest. And to top it all off, you had hundreds of protesters and indigenous activists

demonstrating outside a federal courthouse as a lawsuit was being filed against the hotel. With one banner reading, "'We will not tolerate racist policies and practices.'" And as far as the lawsuit, it seeks damages, claiming that the hotel refused to rent a room to at least two indigenous women earlier in the week. This all leading to Saturday

where leaders from Sioux tribes all over the region convened to discuss what to do, with Kevin Killer, president of one of the Sioux tribes, saying, "'We're tired of this bullshit and adding, I get profiled almost every single day, I know that. You just have to take a stand at a certain point. With five tribal leaders then signing a notice of trespass, arguing that the hotel violated article one of a treaty

made with the Sioux in 1868, which means the hotel and its subsidiaries and by extension Connie's ignorant ass need to vacate the premises or be held liable. With the great Sioux nation saying it is willing to take measures to end racism in the area, including boycotting Rapid City, pressuring the city council to revoke business licenses,

filing hate crime charges against the owner of the hotel, and more. But yeah, ultimately that is where we are. I guess the main point of this story is one, don't be stupid, stupid. And two, not a great idea when you're going, I can't tell who's one of the good ones. Right, that's an appropriate statement when you're talking about, oh, which M&Ms do I want? Not when you're going, I can't tell who's one of the good ones, right? That's an appropriate statement when you're talking about,

oh, which M&Ms do I want? Not when you're talking about races of people. And then of course we need to talk about major updates in Russia's war on Ukraine as we come out of the weekend. Starting off on the ground today, we saw reports of large explosions in the capital of Kyiv, with Ukrainian authorities saying that Russian forces are continuing their efforts to capture highways

in important towns east and northwest of Kyiv. And as part of this, they said that Ukraine will close all its humanitarian corridors today for safety reasons as Russia persists in important towns east and northwest of Kyiv. And as part of this, they said that Ukraine will close all its humanitarian corridors today for safety reasons as Russia persists in its shelling and bombing. But also on the other side of this, you have Ukrainian officials also claiming that counter-offensives, including those around the capital,

are making gains, saying that Russian forces have been pushed out of several towns. Right, and this comes as a spokesman for Ukraine's defense ministry said during a media briefing today that there is no evidence that Russia is going to drop its effort to surround Kyiv, and that fighting continues on multiple fronts. This also happening at the same time

where you have intelligence from both Ukraine's military and the Pentagon indicating that the Kremlin may be shifting its efforts to control the Eastern Donbass region that is partially controlled by Russian separatists. And yesterday, the head of Ukrainian intelligence accused Russia of trying to split the country into two in order to create a North and South Korea and Ukraine.

Meanwhile, in the Southern port city of Maripol, which is located between the separatist region and Crimea, Ukrainian forces are still fighting to prevent a takeover. The city's mayor saying Ukrainians are still holding onto power and accusing the Russian military of committing genocide. But he also admitted that Russian forces are closing in and said that the city needs a complete evacuation.

Right, and those remarks come as defense analysts say that Mariupol could fall to Russia in just a matter of days. With the UK defense ministry saying today that Russia has gained most ground near Mariupol. Even President Zelensky saying during an interview with independent Russian journalists yesterday that he had offered soldiers defending the city the option to retreat, but they declined

because they didn't want to abandon the remaining civilians, the dead and the wounded. Zelensky also adding that Ukraine was ready to make a compromise with Russia on the Donbas region. With that being just one of several very significant potential pledges that Zelensky indicated Ukraine could make under a peace deal during that rare interview,

which of course was censored in Russia. This including that Ukraine could declare its neutrality, which would be a major diplomatic opening. Or for some context here, neutrality is a foreign policy under which a country basically says it will remain neutral or non-aligned in future wars, though it still maintains the ability

to protect itself if attacked. One of the most classic examples of this is Switzerland, though of course there are others. And while neutrality in practice varies and it's unclear exactly how this would look in Ukraine, experts largely agree it would involve some kind of promise in which Russia agrees to respect Ukraine's territory. But such an agreement will also likely end

Ukraine's attempts to join NATO. Right, and while Zelensky has basically already given up on his NATO dreams, a formal declaration of neutrality would be absolutely massive because many experts believe that Ukrainian neutrality is necessary to end this war. But Zelensky also said the question must be put to a national referendum after Russian forces have already withdrawn.

And again, reiterated that Ukraine will need certain security assurances as part of any deal. And all this coming as Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are set to meet in Turkey today for more in-person talks. While you do have Zelensky expressing some optimism, Russian foreign minister minimized expectations before the talks even began. We'll have to wait to see what happens there.

But of course, there are other major pieces of news that I want to hit on here, like the US announcing that it will send six Navy attack planes and 240 troops to Germany. This as Zelensky ramped up his criticisms of Western nations, calling on them to send more weapons and impose even more sanctions. We also saw the UN finding in a new study published yesterday

that 1,119 civilians have been killed, 1,790 have been injured since the war began, but the agency has said that the real numbers are likely considerably higher, but the agency has said that the real numbers are likely considerably higher, but continued fighting has made confirmation difficult. Similarly, Ukraine's prosecutor general has also said her office is investigating 3,085 war crimes committed by Russian forces.

Meanwhile, in Russia, we saw the notable news that a Russian court has now ruled that people in the country can use Facebook and Instagram as long as they don't violate the country's laws on the platform, which is a kind of weird move because the Kremlin designated Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, as an extremist organization, which is a kind of weird move because the Kremlin designated Meta, Facebook and Instagram's parent company, as an extremist organization,

which is a move maybe they made because they saw the ban wasn't having the intended effect, especially as we saw protests continuing over the weekend with other demonstrations taking place all over the world at Zelensky's request. But ultimately where I wanna end this coverage today is to talk about President Biden making a remark on Saturday that has stirred up a lot of trouble.

Because while delivering a high-stakes speech in Warsaw, Poland, we saw Biden say this of Putin. For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power. Those words which White House officials had told reporters were unscripted is very notable for a few reasons. First, because they appear to push US-Russia relations even further towards collapse.

And second, if taken literally at face value, they would signal a major reversal of the US policy of not pushing for regime change. And so with this, you had the Biden administration doing a ton of damage control, trying to walk back the statement with Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying, "'We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia

"'or anywhere else for that matter. "'In this case, as in any case, "'it's up to the people of the country in question. "'It's up to the Russian people.'" That was also echoed by the US ambassador to NATO who said in an interview, "'The US does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, "'full stop.'"

But still, Biden's ad lib was widely slammed by many as being incendiary and playing into Russia's hands. This including criticisms from top Senate Republicans and French president Emmanuel Macron who said, I wouldn't use this kind of words. Adding that if allies want to ceasefire, we mustn't escalate neither with words nor with actions. Though with this, we've seen arguments being made

that Biden is just matching the energy of the man who was falsely calling for the denazification of Ukraine while bombing Holocaust memorials. Also others making me completely different. What about is some point that if Trump was president, he'd be saying crazy things the entire time, but Trump's not president. I think Donald Trump is a horrible psychopath

who wants the end of democracy in this country, but that's a non-point. Biden is POTUS and his words and his remarks have weight. Whether you agree or disagree with him saying those words, that's the truth. Though, notably here, Biden did finally address the backlash today, saying that he stood by his remarks

and rejecting criticism that he misspoke, arguing that he was just expressing his personal outrage about Putin being in power and not a policy change, adding, it's ridiculous. Nobody believes I was talking about taking down Putin. Nobody believes that. But ultimately, that is where that story and today's show ends.

As always, thank you for watching these daily dives in the news. My name's Philip DeFranco, you've just been filled in. I love yo faces and I'll see you tomorrow.