Judging from the comments and articles, the black community here on Medium is split right down the middle on this issue. Amongst those on the negative side are Will Smith himself, who has apologized profusely.

My opinion, for whatever it may or may not be worth, is that he did something wrong, and has apologized, and we should all move on from that. Sean Penn, Orlando Bloom, and numerous other white celebrities whose names I can’t remember, have punched people they were mad at, and nobody made a big deal of either justifying them or condemning them. There’s no moral difference between doing something on or off camera.