Why Do We Still Support Chris Brown?
It’s time to stop listening to Chris Browns music and discuss why we forgave him so fast after his brutal attack on Rihanna.
On February 8th, 2009 singer Robyn Fenty, better known as Rihanna, was physically assaulted by then boyfriend Chris Brown. The altercation began at a pre-grammys party and ended on the streets of a neighborhood in Beverly Hills. The argument began when Rihanna read a text message from another woman on Chris Brown’s phone. The argument escalated while Chris Brown drove and Rihanna was the passenger. According the official police report, Rihanna said Chris Brown began the attack by punching her in the face and busting her lip. The attack did not end there, but continued with Brown punching Rihanna while she tried to call an assistant, hoping this would stop the attack. Instead this further angered Chris Brown, and in an interview by 20/20 Rihanna recalled, “‘He had no soul in his eyes. Just blank. He was clearly blacked-out. There was no person when I looked at him’”. Other gruesome details of the attack included Brown biting Rihanna’s ear, and fingers as she tried to protect herself. The violent assault finally ended when Rihanna was able to pull the keys out of the ignition and get out of the car.
A few hours following the attack, Brown turned himself into the police. Chris Brown was sentenced to five years probation and a community service order for assault. He claimed he was truly apologetic for the incident and “felt like a f**king monster” according to his recent documentary Chris Brown: Welcome to My Life.
Fast forward to the 2010 BET awards. Only one year after the assault on Rihanna, Brown performs a show stopping performance in commemoration of Michael Jackson. This performance was loved by many and ended with Brown singing Man in the Mirror, but he could not finish because of tears running down his face. This left people to see Brown as a human, truly wrecked by his decisions made in the past, which led people to forgive him.
Something interesting to point out in this situation, is the place in which Chris Brown was given the platform to perform. BET is a network which stands for Black Entertainment Television. Only a year after the violent assault, the community in which Chris Brown belonged to was able to forgive his wrongs and give him another chance. This is not for me to place any judgement, given I am not part of the black community and cannot speak on their behalf. Rather I connect the willingness to protect and forgive someone in their community as being part of intersectionality. According to activist and scholar Kimberle Crenshaw, there are multiple types of intersectionality. There is political intersectionality which occurs when a person is placed within different subordinate groups that have different or conflicting interests. An example of this could be a black women who was watching the BET performance of Chris Brown. As a woman she could relate to Rihanna and the violence that is imposed on her everyday. As a member of the black community, she can also sympathize with Chris Brown and wanting to protect, accept, and forgive the young black artist. These conflicting feelings occur because the woman is part of multiple groups that make up who she is.
Let’s fast forward to just two years after the assault. In March of 2011, Chris Brown’s album entitled F.A.M.E becomes his first №1 album on the Billboard 200. Brown also receives a grammy for best r&b album of the year the same month. I am sure there are a wide range of reasons why the vast majority of those who partake in pop culture decided to forgive and simply forget about the attack on Rihanna that had happened only two years prior. I believe the main reason Chris Brown found such success in that short amount of time is accounted for by his fame.
According to Crenshaw, another type of intersectionality is structural. She describes this as being the crossroads of not only race and gender, but also socioeconomic standing and how all three affect the individual. At the time, Chris Brown was a young black artist on the rise. He was likened to Michael Jackson, extremely successful, and well liked. His intersectionality of race, gender, and fame put him in a position in pop culture that allowed him to get away with the brutal assault on Rihanna. This is not to say he completely “got away” with it, obviously the five years of probation was punishment enough. Rather I am saying that not much time passed until most in pop culture, despite race and gender not only forgave Chris Brown, but celebrated him with the grammy and no. 1. His situated fame has continued in his favor.
Fast forward to 2017, and Chris Brown is still relevant in pop culture. In August Brown released a documentary entitled Chris Brown: Welcome to My Life, in which he uses a whole 11 minutes to describe his relationship with Rihanna, including the assault. His intersectionality of age, occupation, success, and fame all allowed for this collective forgiveness by the majority, which is something that still fathoms me.
So what do we do now? I say we stop listening to Chris Brown’s music, boycott his documentary, and bring his name back into the conversation. While the film industry is now opening up and branding people for their assaults against women, I say we bring Chris Brown’s name back up and talk about why we forgave him and why his punishment of probation was not enough. I say we ostracize him and use him as an example of how unequal the treatment is for those with money and fame. I say we stand up against physical assault against women and actively try to make a change.
