By Heather Monahan
Features Assignment Editor
Last week, Opinion Editor Deirdre Spilman wrote about how the public needs to look beyond Chris Brown’s past mistake and let him continue on with his life. I, however, have to disagree with her and want to make a point of why Brown should absolutely not be let off the hook for his mistake.
Rihanna may have forgiven Brown and even gotten back together with him now, however it’s doubtful she will ever truly forget what happened that night. An experience like that is not something that you can erase from your past or simply forget about.
Chances are Rihanna will have to deal with the emotional trauma that came from those events for the rest of her life. Whether or not she’s chosen to forgive him doesn’t change the past.
Forgiveness can be powerful but to forget is something completely different. While Rihanna appeared to be the only one immediately affected by the incident, I’m sure the publicity of the matter struck home for past victims of domestic violence. Once again, this will be something that will most likely haunt them for the rest of their lives. If they can’t move on from what happened, why should Brown be able to do so?
Spilman brought up the fact that because Brown is in the public eye, what he did seems even worse. Of course people exist out there who do things like Brown or even worse than what Brown did, but that’s exactly the point. He is in the public eye, something he willingly brought upon himself when he became a celebrity. Whether or not he likes it, he’s in the spotlight.
You would think that knowing this, Brown would behave with a bit more tact, but apparently that’s beyond his capacity. He’s someone who his fans should be able to look up to. He should impact their lives positively. I’ve seen since the debacle “Team Breezy,” Brown’s supporters, taking to Twitter and defending Brown, saying they’d gladly be beat by Brown as long as he kept singing and dancing the way he does. That doesn’t exactly scream positive influence to me.
If Brown wants to teach girls to accept domestic violence just because someone has a good singing voice, good dance moves or a hot body, I think it’s safe to say he’s definitely not someone who is deserving of moving past what he’s done.
I’d be inclined to rethink this if Brown took to Twitter and corrected the fans that are condoning abuse or if he made a conscious effort to actually show remorse for what he did. In cases like these, sorry doesn’t exactly cut it.
What it comes down to is Brown got away with a slap on the wrist for a serious crime that affects far too many people in America. While I’m not saying people shouldn’t listen to Brown’s music, I think people need to rethink just how serious this incident was and realize that abuse is not a laughing matter, nor is it excusable for any reason.
