A Real Apology from Chris Brown

R&B artist Chris Brown has apologized.  A real apology this time.  Not like his earlier protest that “the media is wrong” about their reporting of the beating he gave to his then girlfriend, pop singer Rihanna, or his father’s explanation that the behavior that landed Rhianna in the hospital was just a “stumble”.  This time it’s a public video apology.  Do we buy it?  We know too much about marketing to swallow it hook, line, and sinker, but we welcome it.  It matters.  Boys are watching, listening, thinking.  In Packaging Boyhood we write about Brown and a slew of other young male artists, sports stars, and actors — “role models”, like it or not — who get caught in bad behavior and respond with all version of excuses.  In a rare rant, we write:

We guess they didn’t get the memo: You are our kids’ role models, whether we like it or not, so “man up” to it. Don’t say you didn’t ask for it. Of course you asked for it. You went out looking for fans. You honed an image that would procure more fans. You do “shout outs” to your fans. And your fans are loyal to you. You can’t be just part superstar or a superstar when you feel like it. With great power comes great responsibility. We don’t only want our sons to be able to muster a decent apology, one that comes without excuse-making, playing dumb, “bad weeks”, forgetting about former lies, a “that was then” but I’m different now, shoddy medical arguments, and the all-purpose, “I’m just a kid”.  We want our kids to make better judgments than you in the first place. How about if each one of you were to say exactly what you should have done differently and showed a little empathy for those you disrespected.  How about making reparations?  How about putting in a little service to clean up the mess you’ve made.

We want real apologies, and Chris Brown has given a pretty nice one.

“I want to live my life so that I am truly worthy of the term ‘role model.’”  Good for him.