But, has the public forgiven Chris Brown?
Most importantly, should it?
The Chris Brown-Rihanna saga was a very unique and confounding controversy. One would be hard-pressed to find something as potentially ugly as this scenario; R&B teen idol with previously squeaky-clean image brutally pummels his superstar girlfriend the night before a major awards show. And both artists are at the height of their popularity.
But if message boards and Twitter are of any indication, many, if not all, African American female fans have forgiven Brown. Tweets of “We love you, Chris!” and messages encouraging Brown to “not listen to the haters,” are all over every story, but what does it mean? Chris Brown shouldn’t be forced to live his life in obscurity or poverty for what happened last winter, but should we be so quick to resume singing along to his latest hit as if it had never happened?
If Chris Brown, the Superstar, was Lou Brown, the Janitor, and he was arrested for beating his girlfriend until the car was bloody, how would you feel about him coming back to work after a two-week suspension? Would you care how much counseling he’d had? Would you check to see?
See, there’s a difference between revenge and rehabilitation. We shouldn’t want to see Brown suffer out of some spiteful, sadistic urge. But we should want him to take the time necessary to address issues that are obviously plaguing this young man. And maybe we shouldn’t be so quick to dance — or to let our daughters dance — to his songs until he has sufficiently worked through his problems. –todd williams
