Chris Brown Dances His Way To Forgiveness… And Beyond [OPINION]

When I wrote ‘beyond’ in the title, I meant ‘beyond’ in the negative sense. Like, the worst way imaginable.

Before we really dive into this, let me preface it: I like Chris Brown’s music. I really do. I think “Deuces” is a great song and I think Chris is a great singer. And, what a dancer! Did you see the Grammys last night? He was amazing.

That said, Chris Brown is, to put it politely, an objectively bad – terrible, really – human being. Now, I realize 2009 was three years ago and as a society, we’re pretty quick to dismiss the past and move onto what’s next. But in this case, here’s some photos to jog your memories.

Remember that?

Chris Brown assaulted girlfriend Rihanna in a car prior to the Grammys, in 2009. Rihanna told People magazine, “I was battered, I was bleeding, I was swollen in my face.” Rightfully, at the time, the public was outraged. Chris Brown was an unhinged woman beater, who used his fists, instead of reason, in arguments.

However, after his rousing performance at this year’s Grammys, it came to light that some people now feel…uh…a little…different. Buzzfeed.com writer Matt Stopera was kind enough to compile a list of similar tweets about Chris Brown. He also offered a pitch-perfect tagline: “Yikes. Looks like we have a really big problem here, society.”

That really big problem are tweets like this from @_anniegregg: “Everyone shut up about Chris Brown being a woman beater… Shiiiittt he can beat me up all night if he wants”

Well then, I will just shut up; case closed. All is forgiven! Wait… What?!?!

There’s really not enough words or space on the internet to appropriately explain how morally and sensibly objectionable those tweets are, so I’ll try my best to use brevity. From ‘I don’t know why Rihanna complained’ to ‘I’d let Chris Brown punch my face,’ this tweets are staggering in their lack of empathy and misunderstanding of the seriousness of domestic abuse.

Perhaps unwittingly, these off-hand comments exonerate Chris Brown’s actions and excuse domestic abuse. Rihanna has forgiven Brown for his actions and they are in contact. But, there’s a big difference between forgiving and forgetting.

This time, it seems like the general public flew past ‘forgetting’ and right into ‘celebrating’ and that’s not a good sign.