Chris Brown and Domestic Violence: The Mistake that Should not be Forgotten, but Forgiven

Lauren Villanueva
Writer

From Vanessa Hudgens’ scandalous bathroom pictures to Kim Kardashian’s sex tape with Ray J, I think it is safe to say that our young Hollywood stars have and probably will continue to make mistakes throughout their lives. However, if the film industry decided to shun Hudgens from the big screen because of her one mistake, 12-years-olds across the country would have been denied the musical sensation of High School Musical 3. If the entertainment world decided to refuse Kardashian her limelight in reality television because of her one mistake, viewers would have been denied their guilty pleasures of enjoying every week the daily, comical occurrences within the Kardashian family.

About three years ago, Chris Brown, the young, still-developing 19-year-old boy from Tallahassee, Fla. made his one mistake as well. I understand that one mistake did leave a bruised and battered Rihanna and in no way, shape or form am I belittling Brown’s physical assault on his now ex-girlfriend. Nonetheless, how long should a mistake hover over his head even after he has apologized to Rihanna and his fans and enrolled in anger management classes? Well, society sure does not think it has been long enough.

Intense backlash from critical, unforgiving viewers ignited as they condemned the 54th Annual Grammy Awards decision to invite the highly talented Brown to perform twice on stage after a three-year hiatus since his domestic abuse incident. These critics, also known as “haters,” of Brown cannot seem to forgive him of his one wrongdoing. The Grammy’s is supposed to represent a celebration of talent and musical achievement from the past year. Does Brown not epitomize these two characteristics?

Ladies and gentlemen, the word is “forgiveness”- a simple concept to comprehend, but a difficult one to put in action…for some people. However, the act of forgiveness does happen and it happens everyday. Society needs to stop focusing on what Brown negatively “represents” and “promotes” to viewers. Instead, society needs to 1) accept that Brown is here to stay in this music industry and that he is not going anywhere and 2) focus on becoming a more forgiving society that allows him to take accountability for his actions, to make amends for his wrongdoing and to most importantly, be given the opportunity to have a second chance. Yes, the young, 19-year-old Brown made one mistake in the heat of an argument, but this one mistake should not define the rest of his life.

In response to BuzzFeed’s compilation of “25 Extremely Upsetting Reactions to Chris Brown at the Grammy’s,” I cannot help but wonder how these children were raised because disturbing tweets, such as “Chris Brown can punch me whenever he wants #love,” stem from problems within that individual’s familial upbringing and not so much from Brown’s musical performance last Sunday. Parents tend to quickly blame the television, music or superstars in this case on not portraying the most positive or moral decisions for their children. However, these parents tend to overlook the not so little fact that their upbringing of their children affects what the child thinks, believes and values.

So, when a tweet that reads, “Everyone shut up about Chris being a woman beater…Shit he can beat me up all night if he wants,” people should not use Brown as the scapegoat for this appalling perception among society’s youth about domestic abuse. People should look at the parents that raised a troubled young girl to tweet such an upsetting public statement.

So the moral of the story is to forgive, but not forget. Like Hudgens and Kardashian, Brown made one mistake- a terrible one to say the least- but a mistake nonetheless.