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Source: Kevin Winter / Getty

When I first came across Chris Brown’s lyrics about “nice hair” on his latest too-damn-long album Indigo, I refused to get mad. I was tired of self inflicting pain on myself over the fact I do not have what society has deemed “good hair.” I shamed myself for forgiving him after he pummeled Rihanna’s face and questioned how a comment about hair would be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I forgave Chris in the past because of youthful ignorance. Because, back then, I couldn’t decipher the language of domestic abuse. Then I experienced it and understood that what occurred between Rihanna and Chris wasn’t a mutual fight, it was abuse. But with her forgiveness of the troubled singer, I too forgave him and started listening to his music again. Incident after incident, I forgave Chris Brown. After all, I’ve been a Chris Brown fan since the beginning *cue throwback photo of me and Chris at the Scream Tour after party*

But a las, Chris Brown doesn’t disappoint (only if you count the fact that he consistently disappoints), and is at the center of controversy again with his admission, “Only wanna f**k the black b**ches with the nice hair.” But Chris Brown, in typical Chris Brown fashion, doesn’t see the problem…or he does and rather fuel flames by jumping on the defense and dare the women who are offended by his comments to post a photo of themselves, because he assumes we’re all ugly with skid row edges.

“Weird ass angry people,” he wrote in response to a comment about his lyrics on Instagram. “Sincerely, from the bottom of my balls…I DON’T GIVE A F**K BOUT YALL NEGATIVE BOOTYFACE A** B*TCHES…IM START GIVING AWAY FREE LACE-FRONTS FOR ALL YOU WIERD (sic) FEMALES WIT THE SKID ROW EDGES AND LOW SELF ESTEEM. ASIDE FROM THAT…HOP OFF THESE NUTTS.”

And if that wasn’t insulting enough, he took a step further for the visually impaired,

“Half y’all look like BUDWEISER FROGS. SO PLEASE DON’T COME WIT DA BULLS**T. I WILL FIRE DAT A** UP AND ROAST THE HELL OUT OF YOU OVERLY SENSITIVE DUCKHEAD A** WIERDOS.”

As I continue to grow as a woman and my understanding of beauty standards reaches profound depths, his latest stunt is shameful. Especially when much of his fan base is Black women without “good hair” who forgave him. This latest stunt exposes the Black men who use and abuse Black women to only abandon them in the long run. Brown has built his career on the backs of Black women’s support. From his mother to Rihanna to the little girl (me) who camped out to get her CD signed. We spent our hard earned dollars on his product to only be told we’re ugly Becke we don’t fit with his Fine China.

The “good hair” conversation is old and tired like Chris Brown’s drug-fueled antics, but unfortunately, it’s a reality whether people like to acknowledge it or not. And most of the time, we rather not acknowledge it because for those who don’t fit into the category (myself included) it’s painful. And for that very reason, I decided I was going to cut off my emotions and tap out of the “good hair” convo to spare what sanity I had left after a week of social media buffoonery. Yet, here I am.

But where there’s a “good hair” fire, there’s colorism smoke and a plethora of misguided “pick me” women and men who think  4c girls are just in our feelings or that Chris Brown or any other colorist’s comments don’t apply to them. To men, it’s just “preference.” It is absolutely OK to be attracted to to different people for your specific reasons. However, when the basis of your preference is rooted in beauty standards defined by European features, you are no longer in the land of preference, but tap dancing on the plantation. The closer to White, the closer to right. And given Chris Brown’s dating history (Karrueche and Karrueche 2), he clearly has a type. And that type doesn’t include 4c or dark skin women.

Outspoke Love & Hip Hop Atlanta star Tokyo Vanity exposed Brown on Instagram accusing the singer of discriminating against dark skin women. “When we was in the club in Miami and in the club in LA, b*tch in your section your rules was ‘No darkies.’

In response to Tokyo calling him out, he posted her bare face on Instastories, with the caption “Damn U fine Babygirl, let me take you to dinner.”

When are these entertainers going to get it? And learn that alienating your core audience is career suicide. Brown was barely dancing in the good graces of women post-Rihanna now another assault on us because Black women are clearly dispensable. And if we continue to perpetuate these beauty standards created by our oppressors, we will not grow as a community to a place where colorism is just a conversation versus an overwhelming feeling of not being good enough for even our own people.

Do better Chris Brown.

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