He’s a celebrity who horrifically bashed his female partner. But we have plenty of those in Australia already.
Local activists recently waged a war against American RnB singer Chris Brown on the basis of his history of domestic violence ahead of his pending Australian tour.
And this week the Immigration Minister gave the 26-year-old – who was convicted in 2009 of assaulting and threatening to kill then girlfriend Rihanna – notice he intended to refuse his visa to enter the country.
Case closed. Activists win, right?
Not quite.
Activist group GetUp!, who led the campaign against the African-American singer, have now retracted their successful campaign and apologised for the “racist aspects” of it.
“The intention of the campaign against Chris Brown was to use a celebrity with a well-known history of violence against women to ignite a discussion about attitudes towards gendered violence,” a statement on their website reads.
“Aspects of this succeeded but we now understand the campaign also supported a racist narrative that sees men of colour unfairly targeted, and stereotyped as more violent than their white counterparts.”
National director Paul Oosting told Fairfax the campaign inadvertently fed into a migration system that unfairly targets people of colour.
“I find Chris Brown abhorrent and it’s really damaging to society that men who commit domestic violence are granted celebrity status,” he said.
“There are wide range of white Australian men who have committed acts of domestic violence who enjoy celebrity status.”
Top Comments
Chris brown wasnt targetted because he is black he was singled out for domestic violence. Id be very happy to see all applicants, famous or not refused entry if found guilty of domestic violence. The fact people twisted it into a racial issue is ridiculous.
How are we to deny access to equally violent/abhorrent men when they already have citizenship? I wasn't aware of the footballers' offences but knew of Matthew Newton's & there's no way in hell I'd watch anything he starred in. I've signed a number of those petitions, including Tyler the Creator & the white fellow who ran 'pick up conferences' encouraging attendees to grab women's throats. For me personally, it was the substance of what they were saying that was at issue. We have a serious, devastating problem with domestic violence in this country & we need to send the message that we reject that sort of behaviour. A few tweets doesn't constitute remorse, he has hardly been outspoken about 'turning over a new leaf' before this.
The Pick - Up Artist (PUA), you're talking about was Julien Blanc.