KING: Chris Rock Oscars opener dropped the ball and lynching jokes went over the line no matter how tough a spot it was

My family and I decided we weren't watching the Oscars this year. Instead we opted to support the Justice for Flint online fundraising event. Many of our favorite stars were actually there anyway.

For us, it's fundamentally outrageous that out of dozens of opportunities, not a single African American was nominated for one doggone category this year. With a voting pool that is overwhelmingly white, overwhelmingly male, and overwhelming old, 2016 turned out to be one of the whitest years in recent history for the Academy Awards.

Our deal, in our house, was that we would just watch Chris Rock's opening monologue. Most of my friends, and thousands of black families across the country have opted to not even do that much and are boycotting the event altogether.

Like we all knew he would, Chris Rock went right for the elephant in the room and tackled the whiteness of the awards, the unique brand of racism in Hollywood, and the fundamental lack of opportunities for African Americans in the industry.

Before Rock ever said a word, his walkout music, "Fight the Power" by Public Enemy, clearly announced his irreverent intentions to tackle racism.

Indeed, he went for it straight away.

"Man, I counted at least 15 black people on that montage," Rock said, referencing the ridiculousness of the number of black folk, none of whom were actually nominated, who were nonetheless featured throughout the opening video mashup of films from the previous year.

He went on.

"Well, I'm here, at the Academy Awards. Also known as the White People's Choice Awards. You realize, if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this Oscars 2016: Best and worst red carpet looks

He went on.

"Well, I'm here, at the Academy Awards. Also known as the White People's Choice Awards. You realize, if they nominated hosts, I wouldn't even get this job. That's right. Y'all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now."

At this point, my family and I were laughing hard. So was most of Black Twitter who had opted to at least watch this much of the show.

After that, while the monologue was still peppered with a few more good yucks, much of what Rock said was distasteful, uncomfortable, and just plain wrong.

"Why are we protesting...the big question is, why this Oscars?" Rock asked.

As Rock attempted to answer his own questions, I kept waiting for him to say something, anything that made one bit of logical sense, but it quickly devolved into a garbled mess of illogical nonsense.

First, Rock suggested that since African Americans had been ignored for the overwhelming majority of the previous 88 Oscars, that it was somewhat peculiar to him that people chose to be upset this year. As if historical injustice should make present-day injustice somehow more palatable for us all.

At that point, Rock could've taught his white audience how we are in a new era of black activism and consciousness that doesn't really take slights and snubs with a smile anymore. He could've opined on how Black Twitter, which didn't exist for previous generations, fueled this frustration. None of that happened though.

See, I think I put too much on Chris. I came in very much wanting him to teach his audience some lessons. He did some of that, but that's not his training.

It got worse. Way worse. Like I almost changed the channel on Chris Rock worse.

Continuing down the road that the Oscars have been snubbing black folk, Rock said that the only reason they didn't protest in 1962 or 1963 was because "we had real things to protest at the time."

Are you serious? The inference here, which I was heretofore reasonably confident that Rock didn't believe, is that African Americans have voiced outrage in 2016 because we don't have anything better to protest.

In fact, from coast to coast, black folk are protesting police brutality, school discrimination, mass incarceration, and so much more. When most of these films were released, in fact, black people were protesting the murders of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Walter Scott in Charleston, South Carolina, Sandra Bland in Texas, and Laquan McDonald in Chicago.

"They were too busy being raped and lynched," Rock declared.

Sadly, though, Rock is missing out on the fact that more unarmed African Americans were killed by police in 2015 than in ANY of the previous 88 years of the Oscars. While it may be hard for some to think of our present day problems on that scale, these are the cold, hard facts.

In essence, Chris somehow found a way to simultaneously oversimplify what it meant to be black in the Civil Rights Movement while also drastically downplaying the size and scope of the injustice we face today.

Thinking he had made a great point (he hadn't), Chris then found a way to take it somewhere even uglier.

"When your grandmother is swinging from a tree, it's really hard to care about best documentary foreign short," Chris said to laughter throughout the audience.

Listen, I know Chris steps on toes for a living, but I don't ever want to hear a live audience laughing about the lynching of our grandmothers. I can't imagine the deepest, darkest pain of any other group of people being used as a prime-time punchline. Not only that, but we indeed live in an era where black bodies, riddled with bullets, choked lifeless, Tasered repeatedly, are strewn all over this country from coast to coast.

Black people have always protested varying forms of injustice - including that in the arts and entertainment community during the era of Jim Crow and lynching. Today is no different. We do not protest the outrageous whiteness of the Oscars this year because we have nothing better to do. We protest because Dr. King was right, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Whether he meant to or not, Chris Rock's monologue gave the distinct impression that black people were either petty for being frustrated with The Academy or that we live in a time without injustice, and, therefore, have too much free time on our hands.

He then proceeded to roast Jada Pinkett Smith for opting not to come to the Oscars when she was primarily a television actress and wasn't quite wanted there in the first place. Again, I get it. This is what Rock does, but she was, of course, invited to the show.

While Rock concluded his monologue with a smart critique of the unique brand of racism in Hollywood, in which the nicest people in the city still go out of their way to not hire African Americans, I couldn't bring myself to get over the mess in the middle.

Chris Rock had a tall order tonight. Maybe the expectations were too high. Jokes about racism to a white audience can't be easy, but I feel like he dropped the ball.