By Justin Michael Carter

This week a war erupted in the Twitterverse when WWE Champion CM Punk called Chris Brown a coward who never really paid for what he did to Rihanna. The WWE wrestler went on to challenge the Grammy Award winner to a fight with all proceeds going toward a domestic abuse charity of his choosing saying, “I will choke you out and I will make you feel as weak and as powerless and scared and alone as any woman who has the misfortune of knowing a sad cowardly little boy such as yourself.” Apparently CM Punk didn’t get the memo that when it comes to Chris Brown all has been forgiven.

Though there are many people who consider Chris Brown’s career resurgence to be objectionable they don’t appear to be an overwhelming majority. Most of Chris Brown’s peers seem to have given him a pass, offering him public support, words of encouragement, and standing ovations at award shows as if he were miraculously recovering from a terminal illness of some sort. This is largely because since the moment his horrific scandal exploded in the press, Chris Brown has carried himself like the victim. Sure he beat a woman to within an inch of her life but did you know that he was also the victim of abuse? Yeah, he had a public meltdown and destroyed a Good Morning America dressing room but did you hear those questions they asked him? Hey, those twitter explosions might be a bit over the top but how dare those kids from Odd Future call him a woman beater?

Apparently it’s not good enough that Chris Brown’s lawyers tossed his assault conviction into a magic hat and pulled out a 5 hour community service trash detail in its stead. Not only was this a neat trick, it also happens to be the legal equivalent of being grounded for hanging out past curfew. But this good fortune just isn’t quite enough to placate Chris Brown. Not at all. Chris Brown would rather the world simply pretend he never tried to shove a defenseless woman from a moving car, he never bashed her head against a window, he never punched her repeatedly in the eyes, face, and mouth until it filled with blood, he never threatened to “beat the shit” out of her when they got home before threatening to “really kill her” when she called for help, he never punched her repeatedly in her face, head, and arms, he never choked her in a headlock, he never bit her on the ear, he never punched her repeatedly in her face and arms, he never choked her in a headlock that brought her to the brink of losing consciousness, he never bit her fingers, and he never punched her on her legs and feet until scurrying away from the blood-soaked car before help arrived.

Luckily for Chris Brown there are plenty of people willing to oblige by pretending these things never happened right along with him. Consider how Chris Brown has been embraced by the Black community and his peers in the Black music industry. Almost immediately after his arrest the whispers in Black barbershops, beauty salons, and school cafeterias became a Greek Chorus speculating that Rihanna must have done “something” to warrant the brutal beating he administered. “I heard she gave him an STD. Well you know she’s crazy right? Word is she hit him first. She probably got caught cheating with Jay-Z.” Some fans even took to social media, shouting Rihanna down to express their disapproval of the way she dared to split her face open on Chris Brown’s fists and bloody up his car. Not to be outdone, the Black music industry broke in the opposite direction by showing public support for Chris Brown like he was being unjustly persecuted. They offered prayers, words of encouragement, and asked for his privacy to be respected as if he had been bludgeoned, bloodied, and bitten in that car three years ago. In this way, the Black community and the Black music industry worked in consort to construct an impenetrable bubble protecting Chris Brown from ever really having to take responsibility for what he did. This is why he has public meltdowns you can set your watch to every time someone like CM Punk dares to remind him they have not forgotten about what he did to Rihanna.

Chris Brown’s escape from career obscurity and public shame might make more sense if it weren’t so unprecedented. Ike Turner and Bobby Brown never got coddled this way during their respective blacklistings. Ike Turner was avoided like the plague after Tina Turner revealed details of his abuse in the 80’s and he eventually spiraled into cocaine and crack addiction. In the 90’s, Bobby Brown was forced to hand over his R&B crown while taking the brunt of the criticism for Whitney Houston’s personal and professional fall from grace and even now he’s taking heat for her tragic death. It wasn’t long ago Kanye West was forced to walk the plank for drunkenly saying Taylor Swift didn’t deserve to win an MTV Award for Video of the Year.

Chris Brown’s blacklisting on the other hand lasted about 12 months and probably had more to do with the poor reception of his subpar Graffiti album than post beating backlash. In fact,the lone highlights of Chris Brown’s blacklisting involved Walmart refusing to sell his CD in their stores and Jay-Z exercising his considerable leverage to forbid him from making an award show appearance.

Despite the soft handling, whenever the CM Punks of the world publicly share their thoughts about Chris Brown’s horrific actions, he spazzes out like Terry Crews in those Old Spice commercials. It’s strange really, it almost seems as if he has a problem controlling his anger. He entitled his most recent album F.A.M.E. or Forgiving All My Enemies, but who are Chris Brown’s enemies exactly? Is Robin Roberts Chris Brown’s enemy for asking about the lifting of his restraining order? Is Dan Lebatard Chris Brown’s enemy for questioning why the Miami Heat would give him court side seats and asking how fans could possibly cheer for him during the national telecast? Maybe his enemies are the people who read the recently released police report, watched the Grammy’s then recoiled during Chris Brown’s performances and acceptance speech. Whatever the case may be, Chris Brown angers very quickly for someone who came away from an ugly assault charge unscathed and a bigger star than he was before.

The truth is, Chris Brown can go on to win 20 more Grammys in his lifetime. He can add 30 hot 100 Billboard singles to his resume. He can build on his acting career and go on to win an Academy Award someday. He can even reconcile with Rihanna and put out a joint album to rival Jay-Z and Kanye’s Watch the Throne. At the end of the day he would still be the man who bashed a woman’s head against a window, punched her repeatedly in the face, choked, bit, and threatened her with murder. He will still be a woman beater.

Picking up trash on the side of every road, every day for the rest of his life would not be enough to atone for beating a woman to within an inch of her life. Chris Brown is and will remain a pariah to many because he has displayed an inability to show contrition and an utter lack of self-awareness about what he has done. It was reported he recently attempted to hit on a woman by telling her, “I promise I won’t beat you.” Whether truth or conjecture there can never be forgiveness for such a person even if his victim has found it in her heart to grant him hers.

During the pinnacle scene of Clint Eastwood’s classic Western Unforgiven. As Clint stares down at his defeated foe holding a gun to his face the man looks up desperately and says, “I don’t deserve this.” Clint responds simply, “Deserves got nothing to do with it,” before pulling the trigger and taking the man’s life. Chris Brown can learn something from this scene. His life is proof that “deserves” truly has nothing to do with it. Because if it did, Chris Brown wouldn’t be making music,dancing on stage, and winning Grammy Awards. He’d be behind bars or worse.

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