Chris Brown’s Fake Tears? He Had No Business on BET Either Way

Debate's stirring over whether Chris Brown's breakdown on the BET Awards show was real or marketing. The real question is why he was there in the first place.

By Jorge Rivas Jun 28, 2010

Last night at the BET awards, Chris Brown performed a "tribute" to Michael Jackson. After a few minutes of showing off his dance moves inspired by his idol Michael Jackson, Brown got emotional and the tribute became a self-serving attempt at redefining his current woman-batterer image. At Michael Jackson’s memorial, [Jermaine Jackson sang "Smile"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJTkAW8X83A) above his own brother’s coffin never broke his delivery. But Chris Brown couldn’t deliver "Man in the Mirror" at the BET awards? Regardless of whether you think Chris Brown’s breakdown was authentic, we should agree on one thing: Brown should have never been on the Black Entertainment Television’s awards show. Black women in the United States suffer deadly violence from family members at rates decidedly higher than other racial groups. [The number one killer of African-American women ages 15 to 34 is homicide at the hands of a current or former intimate partner.](http://new.abanet.org/domesticviolence/Pages/Statistics.aspx) Inviting Brown to perform at the BET awards show makes him choking Rihanna to the point where she began to lose consciousness OK–and we saw this happen last night also. During the awards show, Brown won [BET’s Fandemonium award](http://betawards.bet.com/extras/fandemonium), a prize determined by fan votes, beating out apparent favorites like Justin Bieber, Trey Songz and Nicki Minaj. And the [LA Times conducted an online survey ](http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2010/06/chris-brown-bet-awards-news.html) asking readers if they thought "Chris Brown faked his "emotional appeall." The majority of readers said his tears were authentic and not part of a marketing tactic. What do you think? Let’s say Chris Brown has indeed faced the man in the mirror, gone and got himself some therapy and changed his ways, should he be a headliner on the awards show of the country’s number one cable network in Black households?