Jada Pinkett Smith launched the hugely popular Red Table Talk on Facebook as a vehicle for honest conversation. While many other talk shows present the same premise, this might be the most authentic of its kind. I knew it would take off while watching Jada reminisce with Will Smith’s first wife about the tumultuous start to their journey, followed by unconditional love for one another now. In fact, the power couple have long been pioneers of co-parenting, publicly insisting that it’s possible to get everyone in a room together for the holidays — on behalf of their children. So what could be negative about such a talk? Just ask the New York Post.
Maureen Callahan (the author) takes the couple to task for over-sharing, with a series of savage insults about their parenting choices, jokes about an interview with Willow Smith from 2014 (Willow has since admitted she was having mental health issues during this time), and a poke about Will Smith calling himself as a scientist given that he did not attend college. Here is a direct quote: “One kid that dumb could be coincidental. Two is just bad parenting.”
Lastly, there’s an overall attack about our the current culture of celebrity.
Think about it: One of the reasons “A Star Is Born” is resonating is its ode, clear from the title sequence, to the old-school celebrity industrial complex: the anointing of an unknown, the process of her privileged entry and education into stardom, her respect for this hermetically sealed world. There’s hardly any technology in the film, no sense that it’s present-day.
There’s no acknowledgment that a singer so talented would have been discovered on a reality talent show (Kelly Clarkson) or YouTube (Justin Bieber). She isn’t hounded by TMZ. She has no Google Alert for her name. She doesn’t tweet. And when she suffers the greatest loss of her young life, she keeps her pain to herself until she’s ready, after a time, to turn it into art.
Did Maureen Callahan seriously just compare a fictional movie to the real life world of the Smiths? And did she just date herself with a ludicrous rejection of technology? Furthermore, I take serious issue with a white woman calling a prominent, successful African American family “dumb.” The author and the New York Post should be ashamed of themselves for this article.