Today host Craig Melvin toasted Will Smith for comment

Today host Craig Melvin said so Will Smith’s Oscar punch supported “this long-held perception … that people of color cannot control their anger and anger”.

Melvin has been open about raising his multiracial children as a black father and called it that Best Actor Winner Actions “really disappointing”.

The 42-year-old host has two children, son Delano, 8, and daughter Sybil, 5, with fellow white sports host Lindsay Czarniak.

He said on the air Monday morning: “It was really disappointing.”

“When you’re raising a boy, especially in this country, you spend so much time talking to our kids about it that you keep your hands to yourself, you control your emotions, and then there’s also this long-held perception in this country, that one of color, in particular, can’t control their anger and their anger and see someone so loved for decades — it was disturbing on so many levels,” he added.

Melvin’s comments quickly sparked comments on Twitter.

Michael Todd Brown tweeted: “You never cease to amaze me. They also have a duty to represent and protect men of color. Their on-air comments have only added fuel to an already unstable situation and are just another form of black-on-black crime.”

Jonathan Green wrote: “You’re wrong Craig, it has nothing to do with Men of Color Will punches the hell out of Chris Rock. In black culture, if you talk about our mother and our wife, we’ll kick your ass. Maybe you need to come to Hood and revisit it.”

But, Mike Villa tweeted: “I have to say that was a very eloquent observation by @craigmelvin on @TheTodayShow about the Oscars ‘Slapgate’ and Added LaShawn tweeter: “Craig Melvin was 100% right! Young black boys deserve better than what Will Smith gave them last night. These kids out here are not famous and if they hit someone at school for a joke they are a slander to end up dead! You find excuses for this crap, it’s so toxic!”

After Melvin made his now-controversial comments, other hosts of the Today show also spoke out The viral moment.

Co-host Tom Llamas added, “There’s so much more to this story. As for the violence, I agree with you, you’re 100% right, but Will Smith and his wife have been the subject of so many jokes over the last year and I wonder how much of it even gushed,” Melvin added, “Like you already said it’s never about the thing.”

Today co-host Hoda Kotb replied, “It’s never about the cause and me Read Will Smith’s autobiography which was amazing and in the beginning he described himself as a coward.

“I found it so poignant to say that out loud because when his dad was going through that horrible stuff, he couldn’t resist and it makes you wonder what that moment had to do with all of that stuff.”

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Llamas said, “It was going to be the biggest night of his career,” and Melvin added, “Now it’s overshadowing her. The other winners too.”

2020, Melvin wrote in Men’s Health magazine on raising his son: “At some point I’ll have to talk to my son about how to deal with the fact that he’s going from being a cute kid with great hair to being a threat in society,” he said. “I need to talk to him about how to deal with circumstances that he cannot control. I need to talk to him about how he navigates a world that doesn’t always make sense. But before I have that conversation with him, I’m going to continue having that conversation with myself.”