Accountability in Music • Page 580

In other unsurprising news...TMZ is reporting Chris Brown is being charged with Battery for assaulting a woman at his house.

Can someone explain to me how this guy still has a career? I mean, fucking H.E.R. just did a new collab with him. Why are women of color (or ANYONE) still working with this guy? For a community who sees higher than average violence against women, it’s shocking how many people just give this guy a pass.

Artists have been cancelled for less, wayyyyyy less.

 

The narrative for Chris Brown has always been that he apologized to Rihanna about almost killing her and since she collaborated with him after that, it was all good. Everything after that has been framed by him and his fans as him being a target by the media.

He's insulated by his fanbase and a ton of artists who want to have him available for collaborations because he brings in a ton of streams. He's more or less untouchable, which really sucks.

 

The fact that he stalked karreuche flew under the radar

 

He stalked and assaulted her on multiple occasions. But she's not Rihanna, so I guess it doesn't matter (to the general public, at least to the extent that his career is doing just fine).

Folks might care if his survivors were white. But they're not, so...

 

Remember when he sold t-shirts mocking his rape accuser? Truly a disgusting human being.

Chris Brown is selling t-shirts mocking his rape accuser - Consequence

 

Speaking as a non-POC, why do they give CB such a pass? Do they feel Rihanna and Karreuche weren't actual victims? I just did a Twitter crash course on "Team Breezy"...and it looks to be mostly african american women 14-30yo who are stanning him.

Do they not care that the dude is a serial abuser? Took long enough for R Kelly to be taken down, hopefully the same will happen with CB.

 

Weird phrasing there, there are plenty of “non-POC” Chris Brown fans as well.

 

I really, really, REALLY hope by "they" you meant CB fans and not non-white people. I will continue answering as though that's the case, because otherwise... hmm.

Here's one of the reasons this happens: there is a very common sentiment within non-white communities (speaking strictly as a non-white Latinx person, since I am not Black, I have simply observed similar dynamics with my own experience) that any non-man who speaks on abuse levied against them by someone within that same racial group is being an agent of white supremacy and is therefore evil - far more evil than the person who committed the abuse. Which we are supposed to be understanding of all times because of what non-white men go through because of racism. In short: non-white women and non-men are often charged by our communities with protecting non-white men at any costs, including at our own expense.

White supremacy is responsible for this existence of this dynamic, which is an extension of misogyny, and that's why white folks really never have the range to speak on it. Or I guess, even understand it.

Doesn't excuse anything. But it's a big part of the "why".

 

Thank you for explaining that, I def see the Stockholm Syndrome similarities behind it. It's sad that this cycle of non-white persons who deal with abuse view their abusers as the ones that need saving. Vicious cycle.

 

Not gonna lie here. It also bugs me when white folks pearl clutch about the lack of accountability for non-white men within non-white communities when... how often do white folks hold white men accountable, again?

It's all a problem, but let's not pretend this is somehow isolated.

 

Hm. Not sure what to think of the last two tweets.

 

I don't think I could agree with that more

 

Never considering their gender or “whatever else” is exactly how tours like the Free Throw tour or that Pure Noise tour with State Champs/Real Friends/Four Year Strong/Just Friends/Bearings (where there’s just one woman on the whole package and no POCs in the bands and people were criticizing on social media) continue to happen by these same bands. Obviously not every tour is going to be diverse but the people calling this out are doing so because it’s an issue with the same bands and these bands aren’t doing anything to help rectify the situation, like take more marginalized bands on tour. Saying “I can’t think of a good solution because it’s never happened to us” is not good to say when…it happens and is a reality for many marginalized bands out there.

 

I think that these tweets, while well intentioned... I mean, I dunno. The "I don't see gender" approach will just get bastardized by folks moving in bad faith. It's not that I disagree with their point - I agree for the most part, what happens in these scenarios is simply tokenization, which is incredibly harmful and I hate it. Full stop. And yes, bands absolutely pat themselves on the back because they took a girl or non-white person out on the road and then think they fixed the damn music industry. But... the reality is, saying that and doing nothing else just gives you the old status quo.

Granted, the current methods being decried here clearly aren't fixing the problem either. And honestly? It's all a moot point until the powers that be stop treating diversity like a virtue signaling requirement for optics sake and start grappling with what it is supposed to do: address and dismantle a systemic lack of equity across these industries.

Either way, the most marginalized either end up tokenized or unemployed. Dealer's choice as to which is "worse".

And adding "this hasn't ever been a problem for us" is a weird move. Makes it hard for me to accept these words wholesale because if it hasn't been an issue for you... are you the best person to be speaking on it?

 

It also bears noting that it's 2021 and a lot of the "take non-men on tour" arguments are specifically in response to the way bands are STILL putting out gender-specific job listings because some dude's girlfriend doesn't think her precious man can keep it in his pants on the road. And that every woman in the industry wants said man, otherwise she wouldn't be touring with him. So there are layers to this.

 

Camp Cope - The Opener

 

Did Tyler respond to this at all? His lyrics were so fucking gross and problematic...cool, I'll use the word ***got 75 times on a record, but hey I'm LGBT now so all good, right? His lyrics weaponized his VERY young, male dominated fan base to think these slurs are perfectly acceptable in culture.

Hearing classmates sing along to Eminem lyrics when I was in Jr High, as a closeted teen it really caused some trauma hearing lyrics about "killing ***gots" be celebrated so openly.

 

I don't exactly recall what Destroy Boys did, but everyone in the comments is calling for them to be dropped. Was one of the members an abuser?

 

But also it's not their tour so i don't know wtf these people are expecting here

 

And TSSF clearly doesn’t care about that kind of shit unfortunately.

 

I think when absib says “it’s never been a problem for us”, they mean that as a “female fronted band” themselves it’s not something they really consider when planning a tour. That part of the comment doesn’t really bother me. I do agree that the last tweet especially sort of undermines what they’re saying in the first two though.

 

isn't the one woman on that tour package a poc? I know colorism is a problem as well but I find it incredibly offensive when the cultural identities of individuals are erased because they "look white" and it really does play into the tokenism of poc if you don't think they count as some representation because they don't look ethnic enough for you.

 

Considering Kelen was on twitter cracking jokes about Chris Brown (because violence against women is so funny, y'all, especially when your singer likes to drop kick young girls) just yesterday... yeah, I'd say it's safe to assume they don't care. Might even find it funny!

 

Speaking of…why is his Twitter handle KelenKeller38 with the bio “deaf, blind, and mostly dumb”. Maybe I’m not getting the joke but seems super distasteful to be mocking Helen Keller like that? WTF?