Still, Rock and Chappelle have supporters who don’t think any of this is much of a big deal. When I joined culture critics Hunter Harris and Kathleen Newman-Bremang (who is also the deputy global director at Unbothered) to speak about Rock’s special on CBC Radio’s Commotion the Monday after the special, Twitter users said our “comments were utterly toxic on a number of levels,” and took issue with the fact that we called his old-school misogyny exactly what it was; stale. The fact that listeners were more upset that three Black women critics called out Rock for berating Jada Pinkett-Smith and placing his fury on a Black woman instead of her husband (who was the one who actually slapped Rock in case anyone forgot) is telling. Rock reverted to tiresome misogynoir that, at this point, is just exhausting and repetitive – not provocative.
