I watched the interview of Rihanna on Diane Sawyer and my initial reaction was to be proud of her for staying strong and being able leave Chris. It's obvious that she still loves him. And I'm not gonna lie to you, I've run back a few times to a man who was abusive. No, he never hit me but he was verbally abusive--knew just what to say to make me feel like nothing--and since I thought I loved him, every time he said sorry I was happy to forgive. So I can understand what it takes to be away from someone you love who has made a mistake like this (granted it may be easier with the media and corporate sponsors pressuring you.)
But before I had the chance to sit down and hear her side of the story I was one of many who didn't even want to hear her side. It's been almost a year since the incident, Chris Brown has done his best to make a comeback with his tarnished image, and I know I have been ready to forgive him. What he did was horrifying but I can't believe he deserves the "Ike Turner" label at such a young age. He made a mistake. But with Rihanna now spilling her guts (leaving out what happened in between the text message and the beating) I couldn't help but say to myself, "Wow. Chris Brown is a monster." You should all know by now the Twitter addiction I have (follow me: IamDivaGlam) and my twit fam and I talked about the TIMING of this tell-all. Rihanna has a new album scheduled to come out this month. Now if I didn't have a degree in public relations I wouldn't have had such a bad reaction to the idea of her coming clean at this time. It's clear that she is using the beating as publicity for her album. Yes, we want to know what happened that night. But we sincerely cared about what happened that night in FEBRUARY. I understand that this incident may be the inspiration for her new album and an interview does go hand in hand. But for her to not release any statements about the incident prior to now leaves a bad taste in my mouth. As far as I know she never released any statement--her people did to let us know she was okay--but they never advised her to at least say she couldn't speak for legal reasons or whatever the case may be. Waiting until her album is ready to drop to spill all is just distasteful. I follow Cynamin Jones on Twitter and she said, "Girls needed your voice THEN. Not now."
In conclusion--just between us girls--I believe that overall Rihanna is a brave young woman for going what she went through and deciding that she needed to be apart from the man she loves. And as a celebrity she doesn't owe us the details. It never hurts to clear up rumors but in the end our questions about that night could have remained unanswered. Her timing however is in poor taste. She says she doesn't want this to damage Chris' career but how can it not? Seeing those images, hearing that he may have been cheating, imagining Chris with "no soul" aren't doing anything to build his image.
The main issue is the domestic violence though. I grew up with it first hand and like Rihanna I vow to never be that woman. If you or anyone you know is a victim of domestic violence I encourage you to speak out and get help. All too often I see it as common among people of color but IT'S NOT OKAY. Like Rihanna says "Eff love." That may be the only way to guarantee you will live. You can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline 24 hrs a day at 1.800.799.SAFE or visit them online http://www.ndvh.org/
Stay beautiful inside and out.
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