The Root senior writer Candace McDuffie is proclaiming in front of everyone who will listen to her racially tinged animus that comedian Chris Rock deserved to get smacked by actor Will Smith because he has dared to joke about black women for years.

(Video Credit: CNN)

McDuffie wrote a piece on Sunday titled “Chris Rock Still Deserved to be Slapped by Will Smith,” the day after the legendary comic responded to the Oscars’ incident during a live standup special fittingly called “Selective Outrage” on Netflix.

Following her written opinion on the subject, McDuffie was invited by “CNN This Morning” co-host Don Lemon on Tuesday to bash Chris Rock for finally responding to Smith’s outrageous behavior.

McDuffie put on her best “offended” face and proceeded to elaborate how Rock, 58, had made black women the “butt of his jokes for years” and that he needed to be held accountable for his words. She claimed he was potentially inciting violence.

“It’s not so much about being slapped as it’s about accountability, right,” she informed Lemon. “He has made black women specifically the butt of his jokes for years and he’s finally being held accountable. So I feel this kind of sets the precedent going forward that people will be more careful about how they treat black women.”

Chris Rock will FINALLY speak on the infamous Will Smith-Oscars slap in his new Netflix special, “SELECTIVE OUTRAGE” tonight 👀pic.twitter.com/vCzDJUsW0E

— Screen Off Script (@ScreenOffScript) March 4, 2023

Lemon admonished the writer that people will focus on her words and asked, “Is Candace McDuffie condoning violence, saying that Will Smith should have slapped Chris Rock?”

She responded that in the “literal sense,” her words seemed like a “bit much.” But she wasn’t retracting them and it was obvious that she believed in what she said.

McDuffie wrote on Sunday, “It’s not about condoning violence, but words — especially ones that make black women the punchline — should have consequences.”

“Honestly, sitting here, you know, calling Jada out of her name, making fun of her hair condition, talking about her alopecia, words can be violent as well. And as we see black girls and women, we suffer abuse at higher rates in this country, so continuing to humiliate us only perpetuates this,” she told Lemon on CNN.

(Video Credit: ABC News)

Lemon then asked her what her response would be to those who think she is being “too sensitive” about Rock’s comedic routine, asserting that “a lot of people laugh… when they hear the jokes and say he’s just being a comedian.” McDuffie went on to claim there is a problem with comedy in America.

“I think it speaks to a larger American pattern of using marginalized people as comedic fodder,” she charged. “It can also lead to violence being incited. It can lead to us being not seen as human. Words in comedy have larger consequences as we’ve seen in recent years.”

McDuffie claimed that Rock’s Netflix special “wasn’t comedy.” She said it was “really pain.”

She also claimed that Rock “hasn’t healed from what’s happened, and instead of dealing with those emotions and those feelings, he’s just taking it out” on black women.

.@ChrisRock is right!

Our culture changed when words became violence to the Left.

Now, the Left gaslights violence against conservatives if they don’t like the words we use. pic.twitter.com/5gy1ccnsHa

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 7, 2023

Rock’s special hit back at Will Smith and, in particular, his wife Jada Pinkett Smith. They have been feuding since 2016.

In the comic’s routine, he asserted that anybody who really knew about the circumstances leading up to the slap knew that it wasn’t actually about him. That it was in actuality about Smith, 54, who was guilty of “selective outrage” and lashing out over his wife having an affair. He stated that Jada Pinkett Smith only confessed to having an affair while interviewing her husband and then bluntly added, “His wife was f***ing her son’s friend.”

“You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith,” Rock began onstage. “Everybody knows! Everybody f***ing knows! Yes, it happened. I got smacked. A year ago, I got slapped at the f***ing Oscars by this motherf***er and people are like, ‘Did it hurt?’ It still hurts! I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ear! But I’m not a victim. You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle, crying.”

Rock said he watches Smith’s film, “Emancipation” “just to see him get whooped.”

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