myconvolutedmind

I’m stripping myself of the anti Chris Brown crowd.

dank-potion:

Today was the last straw with this bullshit that The Daily What put out, because there’s something else at play that I can’t get with.

People are more concerned with a political or sociological agenda than they are with the actual victim.

First, let’s get one silly notion out of the way. Rihanna owes you nothing. How self-centered of you to even assume so. All she owes is herself peace of mind. She’s the victim and she gets to rationalize her trauma anyway she pleases. If it means following Chris Brown on Twitter, so be it. If it means collaborating with him on a song, then so be it. You don’t need to understand it, all you’re required to do is respect it.

Secondly and this is what disgusts me the most of these anti Chris Brown people. If you are going to consciously distribute pictures of her battered face and copies of the police report, do us all the favor and admit you do not give a fuck about Rihanna. This is only a publicity stunt for you and your blog, because she has stated on multiple accounts how embarrassing those photos are to her. We’ve seen the pictures and read the account, you don’t need to rehash what’s already been told for the past three years. If your motive is more focused on demoralizing Brown than respecting Rihanna’s wishes, you are disingenuous as fuck and taking advantage of a vulnerable situation for your underhanded cause.

Lastly, if you’re going to focus on Chris Brown, please be sure to do the same when a celebrity (who’s not Black) does the same shit. I cannot recall how many times I’ve talked to feminists who will swear Chris Brown is the spawn of the devil, but act completely oblivious about the likes of Eminem, Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson and their similar actions. The irony of all this is how content Rihanna has become with the situation, while the victims of the other White men get virtually no attention, although they’re vocal about their experiences. If you’re satisfied with degrading a young Black man for his abusive ways, while glancing over the older White men, you need to take a long, hard look at your motives and what you’re really trying to accomplish. You’re just playing into subtle racism by suggesting Black men are more violent and hypermasculine. This is similar to the fight on misogyny in Hip-Hop, while Country, Rock and Pop are overlooked.

I disagree with this.

Honestly, dank-potion’s points are all solid, in and of themselves, but I really dislike that it has to be one way or the other. Are you fucking kidding me? How about we still hold people responsible, just without making the mistakes that dank-potion outlines: that would be the ideal scenario.

Yes, Rihanna gets to choose how she deals with it. I don’t think it’s all that great based off of what I see and feel as a consumer, but I don’t know the reasons for it, and Rihanna is the victim, a person, who deserves her space. What I do know is that the image she’s put out while dealing with the Chris Brown incident through her music hasn’t exactly been the most empowering thing for women. So, yes, good luck to Rihanna, and if somehow working with Chris Brown and in dealing with (satirizing?) the incident through her work helps, great for her, honestly. But I still don’t have to agree with how easily misconstrued the concept can be for younger men and women looking to media, however. You can’t ignore the victim, but you also can’t ignore the sociological impact. You don’t need to.

And of course we should be respectful about Rihanna. Which is why I’m still in the anti Chris Brown crowd and yet I don’t distribute pictures of her face following the incident, which apparently is surprising or something. I can still hate him without making it worse for her. We don’t need to remind her every day or anything, and for those who do, they should stop. But, again, I think it’s fair to look at the incident and say, “Hey, looking back, it was wrong, and it’s still wrong, and it still hasn’t been made okay on Chris Brown’s part—even if Rihanna is dealing with it in her own way, on her part.”

And lastly, yeah, I will focus on Chris Brown, and everyone else you mentioned—Eminem, Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson. Not everyone who hates Chris Brown ignores the harm that others in the spotlight of the media commit or create and the effect that it has on audiences and young people. In some ways, yes, black people get more shit for it because they’re black (given America’s racist tendencies), whereas white people get away with it. For many of us, though, it’s not okay for ANYONE to do stuff like that. However, again—look at how much shit Kanye got for his relatively disrespectful stunt with Taylor Swift, and how little (relative to how much was deserved) Chris Brown for his treatment of Rihanna as well as his uncontrolled tantrums and reactions to being held responsible. The race card is what we want to destroy here. Chris Brown did badly, no matter what, and he deserves the hate. So do all the other people you mentioned, be they white, latino, or asian.

It’s a case of labeling the argument and the “position.” Dank-potion is right in what we SHOULDN’T be doing, but none of that stuff by necessity justifies the title “I’m stripping myself of the anti Chris Brown crowd.” My being in the anti Chris Brown crowd doesn’t actually exclude me from being in the general anti Douchebags crowd.

Thanks though. And hopefully people make sure not to make the mistakes outlined above. Still.