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First, let me say that while I know that being raised with domestic violence, as it's reported Chris Brown was raised, may result in your becoming a physically abusive partner, my sympathy for the young singer is limited. Nothing excuses a man beating a woman. Brown, seeking to save his recording career, has made multiple public apologies for severely beating another star, Rihanna during what began as a "lovers' quarrel" this winter.
The public weighed in then and continues to weigh in. Unfortunately, we still have people, often named Anonymous, popping up in comment sections, who don't get that the Chris Brown-Rihanna incident or beating the hell out of someone and then asking forgiveness is not about love or romance. Neither is it something to brush off, letting by-gones be by-gones. Yet, we see people, young and old, male and female, blaming Rihanna for Brown beating her with arguments that amount to "she was asking for it."
All that said, when Chris Brown appears to tell CNN's Larry King in a clip from an "exclusive" interview that will air Wednesday night that he doesn't remember beating Rihanna, I think he may be telling the truth. The real truth. There is evidence from the field of psychology that blind rage makes one exactly that, blind. A beating like the one Brown gave Rihanna is an example of primal rage unleashed.
Nevertheless, perhaps doing damage control for public perception that a blurry memory of your beating someone up is akin to not taking responsibility for your actions, Brown's released a statement through his record company, Jive Records, explaining his comment to King. He says that the CNN clip was taken out of context and that he "misspoke" when he answered King's query "Do you remember doing it?" with "No."
There have been reports on the internet that I didn’t remember what happened that night with Rihanna. I want to try and set things straight.
That 30 seconds of the interview they used of me was taken from a one hour interview during which that same question was asked something like 4 or 5 times -- and when you look at the entire interview you will see it is not representative of what I said.
The first four times – or how ever many times it was - I gave the same answer -- which was that I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to talk about what happened that night. I said it was not right for me and it really wasn’t fair to Rihanna. The fifth time – or whatever it was – I just misspoke. I was asked, “Do you remember doing it?” and I said, “No.”
Of course I remember what happened. Several times during the interview, my mother said that I came to her right afterwards and told her everything. But it was and still is a blur. And yes, I still can’t believe it happened because it is not me or who I am or is what happened like anything I have ever done before.
As I have said several times previously, I am ashamed of and sorry for what happened that night and I wish I could relive that moment and change things, but I can’t. I take full responsibility for my actions. What I have to do now is to prove to the world that this was an isolated incident and that is not who I am and I intend to do so by my behavior now and in the future. -Chris Brown (Global Grind, "Chris Brown says he didn't black out.")
Hat tip to MrsGrapevine for that link.
Others have posted his statement as well, breaking into different camps--sympathetic vs. no sale. The latter see the singer's statement as a well-crafted bit of PR speak.
Having trained people to talk to the media before, I'll tell you what I think. I think that major parts of the beating are indeed "a blur" to this young man, that there are parts of what happened that Chris hasn't processed and that he really doesn't remember some of his actions that evening. Neither can he explain what turned him into a raging maniac. King kept asking him the same question over and over again because he recognized that Brown was giving him the
