MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross held a panel discussion about the ongoing fallout from Will Smith’s Oscars slap of Chris Rock — a conversation which was based on the premise that White people don’t understand the full context of the incident.

The uproar around Smith continues after his resignation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, with Netflix and Sony reportedly shelving current projects in which Smith was slated to star in the wake of last week’s Oscars. On Saturday, Cross kicked off her discussion by saying “everybody has an opinion [on the slap] and I’m sure you all are tired of talking about it, but we have to weigh in on it.”

From there, Cross brought in actress Yvette Nicole Brown and columnist Michael Harriot, and the MSNBC host explained, “I did get a lot of questions from people genuinely curious, genuinely asking why is it that so many people are saying ‘White folks, sit this one out?'”

Harriot, a columnist for TheGrio, answered by saying the slap controversy applies to “how black people relate to each other” in a way that White people may not understand, “even though it happened to everybody [watching the Oscars].”

It was about how Black people relate to each other. It’s hard to explain to a White person what’s the difference is between an open-handed slap and a punch is, because they consider it all violent. It’s hard to explain that everyone, really, has a certain threshold for which they will react in a certain way — whether it is say something to their mother, their sister. You say words to my wife and my kids, I am going to react a certain way. We don’t know what that is for everyone. When you choose to insult someone in the governing structure, you run the risk of, if you step out of bounds, you don’t know how far out of bounds they’ll step. Chris Rock understood this.

Brown expanded on Harriot’s point by describing the slap as a a matter of Black-on-Black discourse that came to the surface publicly at the Oscars.

“On Twitter, a lot of us were like, ‘y’all sit this out for your protection,’ because when we need to have a conversation, we’re gonna have it,” she said. “If you put your nose in something Black people need to discuss amongst ourselves, it happens.”

Brown stressed, “I am not saying violence is the answer” — a take which both Cross and Harriot concurred with, as all three panelists denounced the slap. The actress went on to say, “a lot of Black people weren’t greatly effected” by the slap because “everyone has apologized. We’re trying to move forward as a family.”

“There’s a level of disrespect that every person can handle,” she said. “Some people use their words, some people use their hands. It is what it is. In the Black community, we understand that.”

From there, Cross said, “I will try to put this in context for our White fellow countrymen as best I can.”

In really, truly Black America, there’s a commonality amongst us all. If we went to a White person’s home and it was their family dinner, we were sitting at the table, and the mother hauled off and slapped the father and everybody at the table has an opinion. The sister is like ‘Mom, you always do this.’ The brother is like ‘I can’t believe you’re doing this.’ Dad is like ‘You’re terrible.’ If I weigh in as the guest in this home and say, ‘Yeah, you guys are terrible,’ Everybody’s like ‘I’m sorry. When did you get an opinion? This is our family table.’ That’s what this moment felt like for many of us. There’s a nuance to what happened.

Cross went on to condemn Smith.

“It was a moment we saw Will Smith behave like a bully,” the MSNBC host said. She added, “I thought the slap itself was completely uncalled for.”

She also said, “I want to be really clear, while we talk about family talk. I think it is utterly ridiculous to center this conversation in the opinions of White folks.”

After a commercial break, the conversation continued with Cross echoing the take of Oscars co-host Wanda Sykes, who called it “gross” of the Academy to let Smith stay at the ceremony after hitting Rock.

Harriot added, “There was nothing that Chris could do that would have made this better. He was put in a situation where there was no way to respond correctly, right? If he would have fought Will Smith, you know, it would have been two thugs up there, right? So, you know, while I understand what Chris went through, I have to also warn people that what happened on this stage does not reflect on Black people.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.

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