On the other hand, instead of turning the Chris Brown-Rihanna story into a cute, on-again-off-again romance, the Onion points out, in its way, that the relationship followed documented patterns of domestic violence. According American Bar Association statistics, African American women ages 20 to 24 experience significantly more violence from intimate partners than do other racial groups. Rihanna is currently 25, but she was 22 in 2009. Forty percent of male batterers assault their partner again within 30 months. I’ve quoted this statistic before, but the CDC has said that black women ages 25 to 29 are 11 times more likely to be killed than white women. In fact, the top killer of African American women ages 15 to 34 is murder by a current or former intimate partner.
Why hasn’t the mainstream media written more about Brown and his troubling history? Or for that matter, his troubling present? In March, The Huffington Post posted a NSFW video in which he basically says that women need to be controlled.
Brown is not some marginal figure. He’s a cultural icon who continues to be nominated for things like the NAACP Image Awards and to win MTV Video Music Awards. He performs at the Grammys. He appears in movies. Some outlets, notably the Washington Post, have consistently contextualized positive stories about Brown with information about his abusive history. But the narrative about him seems to have become: Chris Brown went through some trouble, but now he’s staging a comeback, and good for him!
Women should be angry at Chris Brown. But they shouldn’t be angry at The Onion. That’s the one outlet that has really made a point of reminding us that unless abusers get help, they remain abusers. Instead of being glamorized, domestic abusers should be called out by more media outlets, instead of just one.
What are you talking about? His DV felony is mentioned almost every time he's mentioned or doing an interview.
#1 Posted by John, CJR on Tue 21 May 2013 at 08:17 AM