Breaking the Silence...

And so it seems that I return to my blog for a couple of reasons. The first, there are a number of people who have recently created blogs, and I must compete. Its in my nature. Besides that, however, there is a more legitimate reason: Chris Brown and Rihanna. I know that everyone and their mama has an opinion on the goings on between those two, however, I'd like to offer something a bit different in my analysis of the situation. So lets get to it.

Most people start here either with an exposition on how Chris Brown is awful and things of that nature, or how Rihanna is ruining her life by staying here, or even how Rihanna is ruining Chris Brown's career. While the latter is extremely ridiculous (he hit here, therefore he "ruined" his career), I'm going to ignore this whole thing. I mean, the blame lies on Chris, he allegedly hit her, no matter what degree of provocation she may have used for him to do it. But, the judgment on what happened does not fall into my lap, but into the courts (I can't help but think that some people thought I was going to say God. Why is America, despite its declining belief in Christianity a country that constantly tries to spiritualize everything? Random, I know.) So before I get myslef further entrenched in a topic I wasnt going to discuss, let me move on.

Many of you may be wondering "If you're not going to place a judgment on the case then why should we read this?" Well, to answer you, I said I wasn't going to judge Chris Brown, or Rihanna. I'm going to judge our society. There are some major issues in our society and this case with Chris Brown and Rihanna, bring light to them. One of them is that we hold celebrities to an incredibly high standard. While I personally believe that people in the limelight should operate under the assumption that they are always watched, I'm old enough to realize that celebrities are human and they screw up at times. So do we "regular folk". Its really a matter of how we react to the situation. Chris gave the stereotypical response: flowers, candy, diamonds, and apologies. Who can fault the guy for thinking this would work? He's only 19, which leads to my next topic.

An incredible amount of stress anguish and pressure have been put on a 19 and 20 year old. Some may say that they are celebrities and should know how to act in the public eye, but we must not forget the way in which these celebrities have grown up. From 16 onward, Chris Brown has been lauded as the best R&B artist out (although I could easily argue against it). Society has placed Chris Brown on a pedestal because of his talent and its always tough when an artist falls from grace. Especially when its happens as quickly as it has for Chris Brown. With that said, I must, in many ways, commend Rihanna in this whole thing. People have commented about how seeing Chris Brown in court was sad to see. But let us not forget that before everything became extremely public, there was just word that Chris Brown had assaulted a woman. Seemingly overnight, the hazy details became clear and we became privy to the information that the woman was Rihanna. Then, because of some guys screw up, the pictures from the police report became public. Still throughout it all, Rihan--, actually Robin has been incredibly strong and displayed incredible courage and elegance throughout this endeavor which, with the incredible involvement of the media, is admirable to say the least. Which leads me to them: The Media.

I am amazaed still that this story has gotten so much airtime. First the media couldn't believe what was going on, and broke the story so that all the world would hear. Then when it was finally known that Robin was the woman, there was an uproar with mixed reactions. Some didnt believe her and thought she was trying to ruin Chris' career (yeah, thats believable) and others just as upset at Chris Brown, with little or no regard to the woman whom he had hit...allegedly. In a matter of days, the media had swarmed the story and everyone and their mama had some sort of advice for the star-emblazoned couple. Here's why I have not said anything in the way of what the two of them should do: ITS NOT MY BUSINESS! I mean, honestly, I can say all I want what I think they should do, but if my knowledge serves me correctly, neither of them have asked me my thoughts on what they should do, so why should I just volunteer my opinion to them and then have the nerve to be upset when its not followed? For those who don't know Robin asked the judge to allow her boyfriend to see her while they were going through the court proceedings, and everyone was upset. I think its not only her business but smart. Its clear the two of them, at the very least, have some feelings for the other. So why would she not want to see her boyfriend so that they could work it out? I doubt everything, in terms of their relationsip, is immediately going to go back to the way it was, but if it does, the key thing to remember is that its THEIR relationship. Not America's. Rapper Drake has a line at the end of the Barry Bonds Freestyle on his "Comeback Season" mixtape and it goes "Keep your two cents, I ain't tryna leave you broke". Wise words that we should follow.

Finally, probably my biggest problem with this whole thing. As a result of Chris Brown allegedly assaulting Rihanna, everyone and their mama (in this case, the mama is Oprah) wants to do a show focused on Domestic Violence. Where the hell were all these shows before this? BET (whom I truly disdain from the bottom of my soul) is dedicating some time on 106 & Park towards domestic violence. First of all BET, I dont know what makes you think you're qualified to hold a show on domestic violence when you couldn't even properly handle a dispute between the male host and female host of your flagship show 106 & Park. In fact, after Terrance had verbally abused Rocsi, you sent both of them on a vacation, allowed Terrance to continue to verbally abuse her through the end of the week (when there was a guest host, he made a comment about not having to worry about the guest host having an attitude), and then made him give some sad apology accompanied by, oh what do you know, flowers. In fact, I think I now know where Chris Brown got his apology idea from. All in all, what I'm saying is this: Domestic violence should not become an issue because Chris Brown allegedly hits Rihanna. It should be an issue because for all the woman who are subject to the abuse but not platinum recording artists, their voices need to be heard as well. In fact, the irony of this whole thing is that here at Emory, I've heard some people say they will boycott Chris Brown's music from now on, which I'm completely cool with. But when I push them further and say, "why not attend the Vagina Monologues, an event where the proceeds goes towards women of Domestic Violence?", the response is that they don't have time, or don't see how that would connect.

Maybe now, we can understand that domestic violence is a raceless, classless epidemic. Maybe now, we can take a stand. But for the sake of all that is right, lets not break our silence (kind of like I did) because Chris Brown hit Rihanna...allegedly.

For more information about V-Day, a Global Movement to end Domestic Violence and also where the Vagina Monlogues in umbrella'd (no pun intended) under click here.