Chris Rock certainly addressed the #OscarsSoWhite controversy head-on while hosting the Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 28, and that included his thoughts on Jada Pinkett Smith boycotting the event.
Pinkett Smith boycotted the event last month because of the lack of diversity amongst the nominees, and many accused her of doing it because her husband, Will Smith, wasn’t nominated for his role in Concussion.
Rock said in his opening monologue, “Jada got mad, said she’s not coming. Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties. I wasn’t invited.”
He continued, “You get mad. It’s not fair that Will was this good and didn’t get nominated. It’s also not fair that Will was paid $20 million for ‘Wild Wild West.’ This year at the Oscars, things are going to be a little different. In the ‘In Memoriam’ package it’s just going to be black people who were shot by the cops on their way to the movies. Yes, I said it, all right?”
Pinkett Smith will likely learn about this on Monday morning, considering she said in her Facebook post that she wouldn’t even watch the show.