Chris Brown

The sun rose today. We all need to pay our taxes. And serial fuckstick Chris Brown once again decided he’d care to pick up his smartphone, flex his miserable fingers and fire off yet another sub-140 character post outlining exactly how much of a piece of shit he is (SPOILER: it’s very much). Look at this. LOOK AT IT.

Chris, you are out your mind.

This is not about whether singling Chris Brown out to be denied entry into the country based on a previous history of domestic violence is a good idea (we’ve already let our feelings be well known on that issue here and also here) or a consistent one based on our history of letting artists with similar records in without issue. What denying Chris Brown an Australian visa would represent, is one of the first steps in the right direction towards addressing the absolute scourge of domestic violence in this country, and if it sets a precedent for other artists with very real, violent criminal pasts to be also denied entry who aren’t regarded with the same kind of public disdain as Chris Brown then so be it.

The issue here is that this absolute dropkick of a human, a man who is best known for committing an utterly heinous act of domestic violence, then proceeded to not only be completely remorseless about it to the point of getting a tattoo that all but commemorates it, thinks it’d be a grand old warm and fuzzy idea to come to our shores and lend his insider expertise on the issue to raise awareness about domestic violence.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

Just take a second to think about how disgracefully inappropriate that is. Picture Chris Brown giving a talk to schoolchildren or young men, appearing on TV talking about it in full view of the entire country and its many, many survivors of domestic violence. Chris Brown, the living, breathing, piece of shit avatar of domestic violence in the 21st century getting up and pretending as though he could give a damn about any of them when he’s made it clear that he doesn’t for years. Picture this tattoo he got on his idiot neck looking back at those same women the whole time and try not to vomit in your mouth at the thought of how repulsive to the point of emotional trauma that would be for them.

Try and imagine any of the young men out there he’d be trying to educate taking him seriously in any way when he managed to escape, like some kind of poor-taste Houdini, the abrupt end of his career and the lengthy jail time that should befall any of us were we to beat a woman so badly that she required hospitalisation. This man serves as no kind of ‘warning’ to anybody, just a bleak reminder that domestic violence is still regarded with such a laughably flippant attitude to the point that celebrities are above the laws and consequences of it.

He then tried to justify his comments with a couple of follow up Tweets:

Crimes* Chris, it’s pronounced ‘crimes’. Mistakes implies that being the horrible, violent waste of space that you’ve repeatedly proved yourself to be, is somehow erasable. And as for your secret entertainer powers? All you’ve used them for is to figuratively dance in the faces of the sufferers and on the graves of all the victims of domestic violence by using the wealth you’ve inexplicably managed to accumulate as a talentless entertainer to help you dodge the consequences for your crimes. There are plenty of other, far less offensive and more effective ways to educate ‘the youth’ about domestic violence that don’t involve you in any capacity.

No, this gross little suggestion of his is pulled straight out of the book of inexcusable fuckwittery with a foreword by George Zimmerman. Ignorant and tasteless on so many levels. It would be one (still incredibly horrible) thing were this sentient fart in a jar to have come out with this kind of ‘let’s raise awareness’ attitude straight after he did what he did to Rihanna, but to act like an utterly remorseless jackoff about it for years afterwards, only to then turn around and say you’d be grateful for the chance to raise awareness about the issue here when you’re facing a visa denial (and the subsequent loss of a whole lot of money from the pockets of your horrendously misguided fans), is so vomit-inducingly, horrifyingly transparent and just arrogant.

It’s arrogant as fuck from a man with a history of being exactly that.

Not only that, he even ended that first Tweet by turning it around on his critics as though they’d done something wrong, made him ‘the pink elephant in the room’ (as though that sentence isn’t complete and utter nonsense).

There’s helping to rehabilitate criminals and then there’s shoving them and their crimes in the faces of the last people who need to be reminded of them. Chris Brown lost the chance for even a single iota of the credibility of his character to be retrieved or for any shred of good to come out of his crime when he got that tattoo – even though he somehow tried to dismiss it as inspired by a Day of the Dead skull. Or when he proceeded to react to questions about the domestic violence incident by getting violent. Or when he decided that his violence didn’t discriminate between gender or sexuality and he got homophobically violent. On more than one occasion. Or when he treated his rehab like a joke and got kicked out allegedly for, you guessed it, getting violent.

How much more evidence do we need that Chris Brown doesn’t give a tuppenny fuck about his past as long as he can keep making money into the future? How much more evidence do we need to suggest that simply letting him (or anyone else with a similar record) into the country sends an abhorrently awful message, let alone that allowing him the opportunity to raise awareness about an issue he is both criminally undereducated and wildly insensitive about, is a FUCKING TERRIBLE IDEA?!?!?!

Fuck out of here Chris Brown. Please, just stop.

Chris Brown has just announced a string of tour dates across Australia and New Zealand. We’re questioning whether we – not as women or as Australians, but people in general – want this terrible human being in our backyard. Our immediate point of comparison is Tyler The Creator, whose Australian tour was cancelled, and was banned from entering the UK, on the grounds that his music promotes and glorifies violence against women. While there may be some merit to this accusation, would we really let someone with a proven history of physical – not just lyrical – violence against women into the country?

The over-celebrated, under-talented, cashed-up thug is bringing his auditory onslaught to our shores in the form of the One Hell of a Nite Tour in December, following a US tour. Following the announcement of Brown’s Australian tour, the news broke that the performer may not be able to perform in New Zealand due to his violent past. According to the NZ Herald, Immigration New Zealand spokesman Marc Piercey said that Brown may be barred entry into the country, similar to his 2010 rejection in the UK.

“If Chris Brown has been excluded from another country he will be ineligible to be granted a visa to enter New Zealand unless given a special direction,” Piercey said.

“To date Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has not received any application from the singer to travel to New Zealand.”

Under Section 17 of the Immigration Act 2009, one can apply for ‘special direction’, meaning they can gain an exemption in order to enter the country. Let’s hope he doesn’t get one and follow in a similar vein by barring Brown from entering our country.

The rationale behind forbidding Brown to enter our countries becomes immediately evident when you just take a glimpse at his torrid past. His most vile, and well-known act to date was obviously his brutal assault of then-girlfriend Rihanna, prior to the 2009 Grammys. The singer was publicly vilified and plead guilty after accepting a plea deal which included community labour, five years’ of probation and domestic violence counselling.

You’d think after being publicly lampooned for beating up an innocent woman, who was in fact your girlfriend (a very high profile girlfriend at that), that’d you’d show a little contrition. But no, Brown’s douchebaggery would continue to reach new heights in the ensuing years.

He repeatedly violated the terms of his parole and his behaviour in the weeks following did nothing but the exacerbate the public’s level of hatred for him. Just look at the smug fucker below riding this jetski just weeks after he abused Rihanna:

Check out this snazzy oops necklace he also chose to wear in the months following his assault controversy:

In a truly vomit-inducing attempt at sincerity, Brown then went on to air an apology for his reckless actions.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTj3-2Fdvj0&w=560&h=315]

It’s a diatribe that’s completely devoid of emotion or sincerity. You aren’t fooling anyone.

Just a short list of Brown’s many, many transgressions would include the homophobic tweets sent to Raz B, destroying his dressing room before his Good Morning America appearance, getting into a fight with Drake at New York City club, photoshopping himself into the last ever photo taken of Tupac Shakur, getting into a brawl with Frank Ocean and his crew outside of LA’s Westlake Studios, dressing up as a Terrorist on Halloween and probably most appallingly, getting a tattoo of a battered woman closely resembling the infamous leaked photo of Rihanna on his neck.

Then there’s the disgusting back-and-forth between him and Karrueche Tran, culminating in him posting a nearly nude photo of her lying down without her consent. There’s also the surprise child he fathered, the regally named Royalty, also the name of his forthcoming album.

And if he isn’t just lacking in character or morality, most of his recent artistry has been the most dismal, saccharine pathetic excuse for R&B to hit the shelves in years. Just read this accurate summation below of Brown’s album Fortune. It’s come to gain a mythological status on the internet, known simply as “No Stars Ever”.

Chris Brown is a walking, talking public relations nightmare and a general menace to society. Simply put: Why would we want him to come into our country? If we are not going to let Tyler The Creator in for his misogynistic lyrics, then WHY are we letting in a someone who is an actual misogynist? 

When we welcome morally bankrupt people like this into our country with open arms, we encourage and validate this kind of appalling behaviour. We tell performers that is okay to act this way, because at the end of the day when the cameras move on to the next hot story, their fame and alleged ‘remorse’ will eventually eclipse their past transgressions. We should not let someone perform here who beats women, uses homophobic slurs against people who speak out against him or incorporates blatantly sexist lyrics into their repertoire of songs.

Chris Brown should not be allowed into Australia. The music scene will somehow continue to thrive without him.