With our society’s fast-paced information swap, the world is all a-Twitter.
Most recently, the tweets have been about Chris Brown’s Grammy appearance in light of his violent past.
In case you lived under a rock three years ago, his violent past refers to the night before the 2009 Grammy Awards, when Brown physically assaulted his then-girlfriend Rihanna and threatened to kill her, according to police reports.
It’s apparent Brown feels little remorse for his actions. In a “Larry King Live” interview, Brown recounted his mother’s own victimization when he was a child. He never said he was sorry. He simply said he was “ashamed” and “regrets it.” Recent tweets show Brown believes everyone should forget his past transgressions despite his lack of accepting responsibility for the violent incident.
Despite this, American pop culture seems to have welcomed Brown back with open arms.
Many young women even proclaimed they would welcome Brown’s domestic violence with tweets like, “Chris Brown can beat me all he wants, he is flawless.” They thought they were funny.
What is it about society that provides high-profile people like Chris Brown a pass for the atrocities they commit against other human beings?
It’s not just physical violence like Brown’s, but mental and spiritual atrocities as well.
We accept people like Joan Rivers and Howard Stern belittling entire populations of people for not fitting into their fickle molds. We allow bigots claiming religious or political affiliations to refuse basic human rights to other humans — like marriage or access to health care.
This problem doesn’t have a simple solution because the influencing factors are so complex. I could talk about sexism, privilege, socioeconomics and a host of other factors that cause our society to accept behaviors like Chris Brown’s domestic violence.
I doubt the women who believe they would be OK with Brown beating them have actually been on the receiving end of a punch thrown by their partner. If that’s true, they’re the lucky ones.
The number of people affected by violence from an intimate partner every year in the United States alone is in the millions. Latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 24 people a minute — male and female — are victims of intimate partner violence.
The biggest problem I see with the ignorant statements made on Twitter, though, is dissociation.
It wasn’t their sister, mother or best friend who was beaten up by Brown or demeaned by Stern or Rivers.
Rihanna was a celebrity who racked up publicity and interviews from being beaten by her then-boyfriend. She’s rich and famous, so we don’t have to acknowledge the physical and emotional harm of that night.
It’s easy to minimize celebrities to just a voice on the radio or a person inside the TV screen, with no real effect on our everyday actions and beliefs. But the reality is their actions shape the culture we live in on a daily basis.
With millions of people becoming victims each year, we must make celebrities answer for their violence and bigotry. Not doing so is a slap in the face of millions of victims, saying their pain isn’t as important as the maintenance of a celebrity’s status.
We have to remember the people they hurt are humans with real emotions and real scars, just like us.
Can people change? Yes. Every person deserves a second chance, but that chance must be earned.
Chris Brown needs to prove that he is remorseful for his actions and accept responsibility for the violent act he committed against Rihanna. We shouldn’t welcome him back with open arms until he proves he understands that we don’t dislike him out of jealousy for his success.
We dislike him because he beat a woman and doesn’t seem to care.
Kristi Carnahan is a 25-year-old anthropology senior from West Monroe. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_KCarnahan.
 
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Contact Kristi Carnahan at [email protected]