'Summer of Soul' Producer Calls Out Chris Rock for Calling Him One of 'Four White Guys' When Presenting Best Documentary Oscar
If you thought Summer of Soul (Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised...) winning the Best Documentary Feature at this year's Oscars was bittersweet due to Will Smith's slap stealing the spotlight, think again.
In a long Twitter thread, Summer of Soul producer Joseph Patel called comedian Chris Rock "an absolute f**king dick" for miscategorizing him as one of "four white guys" while presenting the award to their team.
Patel is of South Asian descent.
According to the now-deleted Tweets, Rock's jokes stung because Patel was proud to be one of three South Asians to win Oscars that night, an achievement that has rarely been seen before at previous ceremonies. The other two South Asian winners were Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia who jointly won the Live Action Short Oscar earlier for The Long Goodbye.
As reported in Variety, in his initial Twitter reaction, Patel exclaimed:
"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL F***????? The reason that makes me SO SO VERY ANGRY is because I was so proud to be one of a handful of South Asians to have ever won an Oscar in the history of the award...Three South Asians winning on the same night - that's never happened before! And it's meaningful! It's history!"
Directed by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in his directorial debut, Summer of Soul is a documentary takes a close look into the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and its place in music and pop culture history. Patel was one of three producers honored on the Oscar stage alongside Questlove, the other two producers being Robert Erlinghagen and David Dinerstein, who are white.
When addressing whether Rock's joke could've been the result of the comedian being under stress after being slapped in the face on stage, Patel wrote:
"I'm a big boy - I can take a joke. Comedians make jokes. But not in that moment. What a shitty, disrespectful thing to do. AND HERE'S THE THING... It wasn't that Chris Rock was under stress. He made the same joke the night before on stage at the Roots Jam!"
Ultimately, the interaction soured the award win for the now Oscar-winning documentary producer. Patel remarked:
"I got back home to New York last night and saw the ceremony on my DVR and didn't have the stomach to watch it. I probably never will. Thank you, Chris - You absolute fucking dick."
For more entertainment news and commentary, check out Enstarz! We bring you the latest on your favorite celebrities, TV shows, and films.
