CNN
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Joseph Patel, a producer behind the Oscar-winning documentary “Summer of Soul”, spoke of the slapping incident for the first time, calling Will Smith’s work “selfish” and advising Chris Rock to comment when giving the film award.
A. Has now been deleted In a Twitter thread, Patel – who along with Ahmir was one of the recipients of the award for Best Documentary Feature by “Questlav” Thompson – said the incident robbed the department and “Summer of Souls (… or, when there can be no revolution) television”) Moment.
“I think what Will did was selfish,” Patel wrote Wednesday evening. “It took away the section of his moment. It took away the other great and amazing films of their moment that were a strong year for the Docs.”
Although he did not stop at Smith. Patel also lashed out at Rock, who was named “Ahmir Thompson and four white boys” after the slap.
Rock’s comments were incorrect on both accounts. First, along with Questlav, three men accepted the award: Patel, Robert Fivelant, and David Dinerstein. Second, Patel is not white, he is South Asian.
“The reason I am so angry is because I am proud to be one of the few South Asians to have won an Oscar in the history of the award,” he wrote. “So watching with my family and friends, Chris Rock took me to 1 in 4 whites. (Don’t feel anything disrespectful [Dinerstein] And [Fyvolent] Not even to mention their names, and our mistake of being 3 producers is not 4).
Patel said he did not have the “stomach” to watch the show and he “probably never will.”
CNN reached out to Patel’s representatives for comment.
The feud between Smith and Rock – which happened after Rock Jada made a “GI Jane” joke about Pinkett Smith’s shaved head – echoes again. Smith has publicly apologized for the incident, calling his behavior “unacceptable and unforgivable.”
At a show in Boston on Wednesday evening, Rock addressed the incident, although he did not apologize to Pinkett Smith – who had previously spoken of having alopecia – nor did he mention his mistake in the “Four White Boys” comment.
“I don’t have a clue what happened, so if you come to hear it, I liked the whole show I wrote before this weekend,” he told the crowd. “And I’m still processing what happened, so at some point I’ll talk about it. And it’ll be serious and it’ll be fun, but at the moment I’m going to tell some jokes.”
