Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith seem to have a solid marriage. They work hard. Their work is highly acclaimed and family-friendly. They seem to have transmitted their work ethic to their kids. The photo of their 13-year-old daughter Willow — fully clad, but in bed with a topless male adult — is intriguing because her parents are so obviously involved in her life.
But the culture will out. Again, Willow is only 13. We don’t raise chickens in the yard any more, so rolling out devotees may not have a frame reference for “[chickens] coming home to roost.” The metaphor was famously quoted by Malcolm X in the aftermath of JFK’s assassination in 1963. The bombs the U.S. dropped in Vietnam exploded in Dallas on November 23, 1963. In other words, live by the sword and die by it.
No matter how much we excuse the hyper-sexualized images of young girls as “mere entertainment” with no relation to reality, the culture has consequences. I don’t blame Jada for standing up for her daughter. We don’t know what, if anything, occurred before or after the photo. But we do know this — no matter how much parents attempt to shield and nurture their children —culture is like water. It seeps in wherever there is an opening. –Janice L. Mathis, Esq., Rainbow PUSH Coalition
