Listen Live
Fantastic Voyage Generic Graphics Updated Nov 2023
Black America Web Featured Video
CLOSE

For IPHONE/IPAD users:

I’m conflicted when it comes to this Chris Brown story.

Conflicted because he’s a celebrity, and I know it’s easy to make him out to be the poster child for bad behavior, especially for bad behavior among young black men because he’s a young black man.

Trust me there are lots of young men and women of all different ethnicities who have hair-trigger tempers, and who have run-ins with the law: Justin Bieber, Shia LaBeouf, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Charlie Sheen, I could go on and on.

We’ve seen plenty of examples of bad boys and bad girls to report but what’s different about Chris Brown is of course, the Rihanna thing.

We all remember when it happened and we saw the pictures of Rihanna’s swollen and bruised face. And even with that, many were willing to, if not all out forgive him, at least give him a second chance.

But then there was another incident, and another, and another: the Good Morning America dressing room incident; the Drake entourage altercation; the Frank Ocean altercation; the hit and run in Los Angeles and now this latest arrest in Washington, DC.

And even with all of that, still there are some people willing to give Chris Brown another chance.

Just check out the video of Brown leaving jail last night. People falling all over themselves to see him, take a photo; just to have a glimpse of him and as I watched that video it made me sad.

Sad not for the people screaming his name, they really don’t care about Chris Brown, they don’t care about him; to them he’s just a character that fills some sort of unknown void in their lives. I felt sad for Chris Brown because he seemed to love the attention; you could see him smiling at times.

Sad because as someone who has some degree of celebrity, not nearly that of a Chris Brown, but I know that the old saying isn’t true: not all publicity is good publicity.

And while the cameras and the security guards and the groupies may offer some momentary fulfillment, in the end it’s empty.

Many of those people are there because of the spectacle, because he is a spectacle and being a spectacle, good or bad, doesn’t last forever; thus, the nature of the term and in that moment; it’s not helping you or him personally.

Perhaps professionally, he’s going to garner more headlines to help bolster the bad boy image that he and the press seem to be cultivating.

Okay Chris and I mean this with all honesty and with the best of intentions. I’ve been 24-years-old before and felt invincible; that fades over time and with age comes wisdom and you realize that not everyone talking in your ear has your best interest at heart.

Most of the people you think are your closest friends or closest to you: your boys, your fellas; they don’t give a damn about you.

When you go to jail, you go to jail alone. You don’t know me from Adam but if I can offer you a bit of advice from one man to another, one black man to another.

Don’t listen to the people who tell you that everyone who is criticizing you is a hater, they’re not. That criticism is very valuable because those people have nothing to gain from your fame, or your fortune.  They are not on your payroll and probably don’t want to be.

They see you as you really are, as you’re seen in the eyes of the public, as an out of control brother.  A hot head who is lucky so far to have avoided prison and if you keep it up, it will be your new home; the biggest one in which you’ve ever lived with the smallest bedroom in which you’ve ever slept.

Celebrities Arrested Two or More Times
0 photos