Open Thread: Chris Brown’s Twitter Flameout

By On November 26, 2012 · 17 Comments

By Arturo R. García

So if you searched for @ChrisBrown on Twitter late Sunday night, this is what you got:

Brown appears to be off of the platform, at least for now, after getting into it with comedy writer Jenny Johnson.

The exchange seems to have started with this:

And it devolved from there (NSFW + misogyny warning) leading to this salvo from Brown:

Before he either deleted or was advised to delete his account, prompting cheers for Johnson’s efforts.

But, while there’s no defending Brown’s language–to say nothing of his misogynistic actions and rhetoric–it’s important to note that, as the Huffington Post reported, this was far from their first encounter on Twitter. And for what it’s worth, Rihanna herself highlighted this on Instagram at one point, in a post that was apparently later deleted.

Via twitchy.com

In an interview with PaperMag, Johnson discussed building her Twitter presence in part through repeated mockery of not only Brown, but Kim Kardashian:

As for Kim Kardashian, the whole Kardashian family is famous based on the dad being OJ Simpson’s defense attorney and then, really, with her making that sex tape. But no one ever acknowledges it! They’re never like, “Gee, the reason everyone knows who we are is because Kim had sex with Ray J on camera and sold a tape, made money, and now we have shows, multiple shows and spin-offs.” I don’t have a real disdain for her but I just think she’s delusional. For her to continue going on about how hard she’s working, it’s like, Oh my god, you sold jewelry on QVC! You’re really going to compare that to working hard? She’ll tweet something on a Tuesday like, “Oh god, just went to the gym. Two hour work-out and now I’m gonna go have breakfast with my mom. What’s everyone else up to today?” Working at my job, Kim, like everyone else. We don’t all get to go work out for two hours and then go hang out with our mom. Everyone else has to make a paycheck and pay their bills. I find it funny to poke fun at her because her problems are not real-people problems. And she doesn’t seem to grasp that concept.

The situation had regressed further as of Monday morning, when Johnson reported getting death threats from Brown fans.

The floor is yours, Racializens.

Tagged with: • • • • •
 
Spread This Idea
Reddit Facebook Twitter Delicious StumbleUpon
  • http://twitter.com/zatoichiblack Eugene Blackman

    The only comment i have about this is where’s the frustration with Charlie Sheen? I dont see her tweeting about Charlie Sheen and by no means do i excuse CB but to me this borders on stalking. Let it go the guy maybe unstable but he has paid his dues and to my understanding still reports to the judge who reviews what he is doing.

  • ihatediamonds

    There are two truths here. 1. Predominantly white media, comedians, and other figures vilify black men for the same behavior that they allow white men to walk away from. 2. Chris Brown is a jerk who probably needs a serious intervention.

    However, individuals who martyr themselves by wailing incessantly about the second truth while practicing the first truth need to go talk a long, long walk.

    I follow JJH5 and the vast majority of her tweets are lobbing slams at the low hanging fruit that is Brown and Kim Kardashian. It’s off-putting nonsense. She does it solely to garner attention, the exact same thing she reams Kardashian about. Brown is not in the right here but he didn’t go looking for this fight. He was bullied off of social media while Sean Penn, Roman Polanski, and Mel Gibson get invited to awards shows. The violent outbursts against JJH5 on Twitter are inexcusable, but when you practice and contribute to the cognitive dissonance around violence, race, and media portrayal in this country, the outcome is going to be predictably not pretty. Brown, unfortunately has become a focal point for young, mostly black people who are tired of this type of slanted coverage, JJH5 herself has contributed to that. Instead of having useful conversations about dealing with violence against women across races and classes, we talk about a Twitter fight. It’s extra frustrating to be because I feel like once again it’s young black women who loose in this battle. This cognitive dissonance cuts many off from accessing feminist discussions about anti-violence. A tragedy, because non-white, especially black women already deal with a higher rate of domestic abuse/partner violence than white women.

    Before I go on to write an essay, I’ll just stop here and say that this is all disappointing and fucked-up on about 7 different levels.

  • ihatediamonds

    There are two truths here. 1. Predominantly white media, comedians, and other figures vilify black men for the same behavior that they allow white men to walk away from. 2. Chris Brown is a jerk who probably needs a serious intervention.

    However, individuals who martyr themselves by wailing incessantly about the second truth while practicing the first truth need to go talk a long, long walk.

    I follow JJH5 and the vast majority of her tweets are lobbing slams at the low hanging fruit that is Brown and Kim Kardashian. It’s off-putting nonsense. She does it solely to garner attention, the exact same thing she reams Kardashian about. Brown is not in the right here but he didn’t go looking for this fight. He was bullied off of social media while Sean Penn, Roman Polanski, and Mel Gibson get invited to awards shows. The violent outbursts against JJH5 on Twitter are inexcusable, but when you practice and contribute to the cognitive dissonance around violence, race, and media portrayal in this country, the outcome is going to be predictably not pretty. Brown, unfortunately has become a focal point for young, mostly black people who are tired of this type of slanted coverage, JJH5 herself has contributed to that. Instead of having useful conversations about dealing with violence against women across races and classes, we talk about a Twitter fight. It’s extra frustrating to be because I feel like once again it’s young black women who loose in this battle. This cognitive dissonance cuts many off from accessing feminist discussions about anti-violence. A tragedy, because non-white, especially black women already deal with a higher rate of domestic abuse/partner violence than white women.

    Before I go on to write an essay, I’ll just stop here and say that this is all disappointing and fucked-up on about 7 different levels.

  • ihatediamonds

    There are two truths here. 1. Predominantly white media, comedians, and other figures vilify black men for the same behavior that they allow white men to walk away from. 2. Chris Brown is a jerk who probably needs a serious intervention.

    However, individuals who martyr themselves by wailing incessantly about the second truth while practicing the first truth need to go talk a long, long walk.

    I follow JJH5 and the vast majority of her tweets are lobbing slams at the low hanging fruit that is Brown and Kim Kardashian. It’s off-putting nonsense. She does it solely to garner attention, the exact same thing she reams Kardashian about. Brown is not in the right here but he didn’t go looking for this fight. He was bullied off of social media while Sean Penn, Roman Polanski, and Mel Gibson get invited to awards shows. The violent outbursts against JJH5 on Twitter are inexcusable, but when you practice and contribute to the cognitive dissonance around violence, race, and media portrayal in this country, the outcome is going to be predictably not pretty. Brown, unfortunately has become a focal point for young, mostly black people who are tired of this type of slanted coverage, JJH5 herself has contributed to that. Instead of having useful conversations about dealing with violence against women across races and classes, we talk about a Twitter fight. It’s extra frustrating to be because I feel like once again it’s young black women who loose in this battle. This cognitive dissonance cuts many off from accessing feminist discussions about anti-violence. A tragedy, because non-white, especially black women already deal with a higher rate of domestic abuse/partner violence than white women.

    Before I go on to write an essay, I’ll just stop here and say that this is all disappointing and fucked-up on about 7 different levels.

  • Anonymous

    While I understand Jenny Johnson’s seeming disgust towards Chris Brown’s antics and his ability to regain the spotlight, I don’t know how effective it really is to start cursing him out on Twitter. If she felt that doing this would make him change his ways, it seems to have made him become even more stubborn about his misogyny.

  • Anonymous

    While I understand Jenny Johnson’s seeming disgust towards Chris Brown’s antics and his ability to regain the spotlight, I don’t know how effective it really is to start cursing him out on Twitter. If she felt that doing this would make him change his ways, it seems to have made him become even more stubborn about his misogyny.

  • Anonymous

    While I understand Jenny Johnson’s seeming disgust towards Chris Brown’s antics and his ability to regain the spotlight, I don’t know how effective it really is to start cursing him out on Twitter. If she felt that doing this would make him change his ways, it seems to have made him become even more stubborn about his misogyny.

  • Luna

    I can’t with this Jenny Johnson woman. Her tweets: slut-shaming! Asians are good at homework! Black men have big dicks! Black women are kinda trashy! And then going after Chris Brown and Kim Kardashian as though it’s a high-minded pursuit. When really, it’s cheap laughs played to an easy crowd. And now that Chris Brown who is unequivocal garbage with serious anger issues (like dude, get intensive help) has left Twitter, she is some kind of ‘feminist’ saviour. Or to quote paper mag an ‘Internet Saint’. Ugh, forever I am tired. I do maintain that if mainstream figures had dealt with Chris Brown by ignoring him, refusing to print, publish read or write about him, he’d be more of a pop-culture footnote by now. This racialised opposition (because do I even need to list the white men who beat up on women who no one mentions and everybody somehow forgives) has galvanised his opinion of himself, as a victim or survivor, and given him an army of fans who feel the same. Like, they’re all so counter-culture for sticking up for Breezy. A lot of these fans are young black women who seem to not know any better because they aren’t taught to care about themselves, there is little to nothing in our culture that tells them to value themselves. That is the saddest thing in this whole mess.

  • dirty 30′s

    Yes our feminist saviour who calls her own step-daughter and other women sluts and whores. She should stop trying to be funny…

  • Anonymous

    You are so right about how this twitter fight takes away from there being any serious discussions around domestic violence affecting all communities. Come to think of it, I’ve been noticing the media loving to give attention to people like Jenny Johnson who publicly shun CB, like the Irish rap group who refused to tour with him because of abusing Rihanna, and another woman who publicly stated her disgust at him winning a Grammy. And the thing all these people have in common is that they’re all white, which means the media loves to portray them as these righteous white people coming in to try saving a helpless brown woman from the clutches of the scary, violent brown man. And Rihanna herself has no agency in this, since she was never asked whether she wanted these people to help her in the first place.

  • Anonymous

    And some people have actually turned against Rihanna for exercising agency and being an adult woman who makes her own decisions b/c she didn’t behave in a way they thought appropriate. She didn’t live up to their expectations of how a survivor/victim should conduct themselves. Way too many people saying she was stupid to seek his company after the public display of abuse and that she deserved whatever she got.

  • Anonymous

    Thanks you make a great point!

  • Anonymous

    Thanks you make a great point!

  • S Baldwin

    Yes. I know this. That’s why I don’t trust the mainstream media and the mainly white feminists who cherry pick on violence against women by Black male celebrities while playing down similar behavior by white and other nonblack men. Rhianna is being condemned by mainstream America for having agency. The same way they condemn the late Whitney Houston for her decision to stick with Bobby Brown. What hypocrites!

  • Anonymous

    You’re right the issue of domestic violence should be highlighted first and foremost at all times (not just for this case, but for all cases when they happen). Unfortunately mainstream media makes it so much harder to address the issue at hand, what with them grossly stereotyping and generalizing the instances of domestic violence within minority communities for outsiders to gawk at. There has to be a way to solve the problem of domestic violence without letting the fear of having our dirty laundry aired by the invasive media, prevent us from doing so.

  • miga

    You make a lot of good points, and I definitely agree that our community needs to do a better job holding him accountable and teaching our children about respect for women. However, could you please not use bipolar in this way? As a person with bipolar, It’s exasperating.

  • Town

    People haven’t really held R. Kelly accountable for fooling around with little teen girls, how can we expect people to deal with Chris Brown?

Switch to our mobile site