Separating the Art From The Abuser Isn’t Working Anymore

How the latest cancelled episode of Baby This is Keke Palmer is showing the pleas for second chances from celebrity abuser’s fans are starting to fall flat

On Monday when it was announced the highly publicized episode of Keke Palmer’s podcast was cancelled, I was shocked. Truly, shocked. The episode had been talked about for a full week online. So much so that other popular podcasts in Black culture like The Read had even broched the subject. Jonathan Majors on his comeback publicity tour. Newly married and promoting a movie. A delayed release movie that two years ago was in talks for Golden Globes and Oscars.

So…are we just not going to talk about the fact that he just got finished with his domestic violence program THIS week? The program that he had to go through because he assaulted his ex-girlfriend on camera?

Many were trying to understand why Keke Palmer would even put herself in this predicament. She owns her own podcast, so there’s no studio network demanding that she must do this show with Jonathan Majors against her will. Especially after everything that happened to her last year; a highly publicized breakup with the father of her child. With Keke Palmer herself releasing videos showing how he physically abused her in her home. And her mother retelling moments of abuse she had witnessed with her own eyes. Why would a survivor of domestic violence roll out the red carpet and invite another convicted domestic abuser onto her podcast? Giggling and chatting. Are we as the public supposed to just forget about both situations and act like everything is normal again?

In the past this was very much what was expected to happen. I remember the morning after a late night segment on R. Kelly my mother watched when I was a kid. My mother had watched the entire 90 minute special on the Grammy winning R&B superstar which laid out a timeline of his known activity with underage girls. They talked in length about the illegal marriage to underage Aaliyah, the abuse accusations from his estranged wife, and the notorious pee video. Pee video? I had no clue what that was at the time. I pretended to read a book while listening to the whole thing, and watched out of the corner of my eye as my mother grimaced her face or shook her head in disgust. But the next morning, it was as if that night had never happened. The radio station played most of R. Kelly’s Chocolate Factory album. She hummed along and turned the volume up when it got to her favorite song on the album, Step In the Name of Love. She didn’t change station and laughed at the jokes the radio hosts made about the tv special.

It confused me. It made me start to believe the jokes and rifts that people made about R. Kelly had the truth in them. And the accusations that came from the abused were… over-exaggerated? Misconstrued? I mean, if what they said was true then there wouldn’t be so many people joking about it. Or still dancing to his music. Why they did not flinch the second they recognized his voice? My childlike mind thought that with so much support R. Kelly must be the one in the right.

It didn’t make sense. I didn’t understand why people swayed or sang along to R. Kelly’s music as if the trials and testimonies never happened. Once I was old enough to fully comprehend what the pee video was I was dumbfounded. Did they not think about the horrible things that happened in that video every time his song came on? This wasn’t some random sex tape between two consenting adults with a fetish. This was a recorded act of statutory rape with a child. A CHILD. But the tape was released to the masses and sold next to Disney movies and romantic comedies by bootleg video suppliers around the world. Millions of people saw the act of statutory rape and laughed. They laughed.

So now as I watch this tumultuous effort by the team of Jonathan Majors, I’m not going to lie, I feel a growing sense of pride. Yes there still are the tweets and posts by red pill fed alpha males. Who don’t deny the abuse but think that Majors should be allowed the same grace so many Caucasian men in entertainment were granted through privilege when they committed a rape or two. I see the streams from women who casually mention some atrocious abuse they themselves went through, and how no one came to rescue them or cared about them. So they don’t comprehend why the public should care about another. But I also see a swelling wave of public opinion changing. If it weren’t the podcast would’ve aired and not be hidden on a forbidden hard drive somewhere while Majors’ and Palmer’s PR teams do a lot of scrubbing.

I’m not going to pretend that I know all of the rules for ass-kissing in Hollywood. I think the amount of exposes, trials, and documentaries over the past ten years have shown anyone with eyes that there are many abusers in entertainment. Many abusers who unfortunately have money to produce life-changing blockbuster projects, or to make tons of accusations for abuse completely disappear. I understand that unfortunately, many of the people I’ve admired for years had to deal with unimaginable horrors. Probably sucking up whatever ick they felt for an abuser. They must make themselves camera-ready at all times and deal with some creep behind the scenes that can probably make or break their career. Smiling and pretending that it was ok when it wasn’t ok or safe.

I do however know what it’s like to identify as a woman in this world that is often ruled by male centered egos and misogyny. I know what it’s like to be taught by women of previous generations to just ignore a story of a local man beating his wife to a pulp. That’s their business not ours. When the abuser just lived on and neither had to account or be sorry for what they’d done. How hard it is to stand on a boundary not just on principle but because the abuser harmed another life for sport or societal power. I’ve gotten the weird looks when my body tensed up when these abusers came around for hugs during gatherings or holidays. That abuse? Oh, that old thing where the woman was laid out and in desperate need of help and we just watched from the safe sidelines? Just forget about it.

But we don’t have to forget about it and smile. We don’t have to do that anymore.

I know that there are the bleeding hearts out there who think that a person should get chance after chance after chance. After a lifetime of my own abuse I’m not of that mindset anymore. Especially when the abuser doesn’t show much remorse or changed behavior. Mere days before Baby This Is Keke Palmer made the announcement about the Jonathan Majors episode a recording was released where Majors confessed to his crimes. He confessed to his ex-girlfriend what he had done and took way more accountability than he did in his court trial. But instead of addressing that in the multiple shows Majors has been able to book since there’s game segments of fun, talk of marriage, and avoidance. If we do that again as we did with R. Kelly, Diddy, and so many others, the abuse will keep happening. There’s going to be many more children watching from the sidelines, just as I used to, who will believe they must stand on the side of the abuser. Instead of believing victims they’re going to laugh it off or pretend it’s ok. Because society and community have taught them to do so by outwardly declaring they will still support the artist.

People can change. But not without accountability and a proven record of changed behavior. No, we as the public don’t need to know every fart and thought after a scandal or leak. However I think we are owed some sincere apologies when a celebrity intentionally endangers the lives of others. Some real effort to not only know why what they did was wrong but learn how to not do it again. Not just hoping the whole thing blows over so everyone can pretend the abuser is the celebrity we all thought they’d be. If they aren’t, they aren’t. There are thousands of hopefuls behind them in line that should be given the chance to show their talent instead.

I’m so glad in this generation we’re at least getting some things right. And starting to support the art of abusers in entertainment less and less. Contrary to the enablers you can indeed watch many movies and listen to tons of music without supporting a known abuser.