Will Smith has for decades been one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.
"He was called Mr Summer," said April Reign, creator of the viral hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
"He had the string of Men in Black movies and Independence Day and others where they were tentpole films that ruled the entire three-month period."
Speaking to the ABC, Ms Reign said she noticed an almost immediate shift in how people in certain communities were quick to flip the narrative after Smith hit comedian Chris Rock at the 94th Academy Awards.
Rock had made a joke directed at Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia.
Referencing a tweet by Reverend Martin Luther King Jnr's daughter, activist and lawyer Dr Bernice King, Ms Reign said "respectability politics" is at play.
"Will Smith has done everything by the book his entire career," Ms Reign said.
"When he was a rapper, there were never any curse words in his rap songs, unlike many others."
She said he had been very intentional about the roles he had chosen and lived a very public life with his family.
"And then there is this one minute of his life, that was literally 60 seconds, that was very public.
"And all of a sudden, people are calling him violent, people are calling him an abuser, as if the previous 20 years have been washed away."
Smith will survive this controversy
Assistant professor of Hip Hop at the University of Virginia, A.D. Carson, said the scenario was being used to confirm biases held by some people and to push a false narrative.
"You see a lot of people making comments about what it means that a black man assaulted another black man, after a black man made jokes at the expense of the disability of a black woman," Dr Carson said.
"In the way that the stories are being presented – it's violence among black people at the Oscars, which were just accused of being so white very recently, and now that they have diversified, it's like airing black folks' business in front of not just white America, but in front of the world."
He said Will Smith and Chris Rock were erroneously being held up by some as avatars for black manhood.
"There may be lots of folks who have all kinds of really negative thoughts and opinions about black people, about rappers about entertainers, about black men, and they don't care at all about Will Smith, or Chris Rock, but those people will use this in order to confirm their thoughts."
He doesn't think Smith's reputation will suffer.
"The fact that this can be the kind of thing that will consume people to the point where they'll be like 'will this ruin his career?,' but at the same time there are folks who are seriously entertaining Donald Trump running for president again… it's kind of a wonky, weird bizarro world that we're living in.
"I'm not sure what will happen, but I just don't believe that it will be the kind of thing that will ruin Will Smith's career."
Actor Whoopi Goldberg, who is a member of the Academy board of governors, said on The View the incident won't be overlooked.
"We're not going to take that Oscar from him," she said.
"There will be consequences, I'm sure."
Ms Reign believes that ultimately Smith, who has his own production company, will be fine.
"Every single studio will say yes to Will Smith, and that says more I think about studios turning a blind eye to controversy when there is an actor that they want to work with.
She cited actor Kevin Spacey, producer Harvey Weinstein and director Woody Allen as case studies.
"All those studios knew that there were issues with those men, but they made films with them anyway, because money, unfortunately, drives every single industry, including the entertainment industry."
An historic Oscars ceremony sidelined by sensationalism
On January 15, 2015, Ms Reign sent out her first #OscarsSoWhite tweet, in response to all 20 acting nominations for that year's Academy Awards being given to white actors.
The hashtag quickly went viral, spearheading a sustained social justice campaign.
When in 2016 the Academy again exclusively nominated white actors for awards, the hashtag was revived.
Many boycotted the ceremony, with Rock poking fun at Pinkett Smith at that awards show too.
Ms Reign said the controversy between Smith and Rock has diverted attention from what was an historic Oscars ceremony this year – the first Academy Awards that had an all-black producing team.
"As the creator of Oscars So White, I'm always looking at the progress or lack thereof that is made during the award season," she said.
"And very few people are talking about the fact that Ariana DeBose was the first openly queer woman and one of the few women of colour to ever win a Best Supporting Actress Oscar.
"Very few people are talking about the fact that Troy Kotsur is the first deaf man to win an acting Oscar for CODA.
"Jane Campion – it is the first time that the Best Director Oscar has gone to films directed by women in back-to-back years, this time with Jane Campion, last year in 2021 with Chloe Zhao for Nomadland.
"Will Smith won the award for best actor.
"He's only the fifth black man in history in over 95 years to win that award."
She said Pinkett Smith's recent Instagram post shows she's attempting to move on, and so should the public.
"I understand this is what gets the clicks and the headlines and all the rest of it, but at least also mention what an historic night this was for people from different marginalised communities, as you're talking about the sensationalism of the slap."
