By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com
Sometimes a Grammy is Just a Grammy
All over Twitter and Facebook today, virtual jabs have been tossed back and forth between those who think Chris Brown winning for Best R&B Album equates to the Grammy Award’s tacit approval of Brown’s physical assault of his then-girlfriend Rihanna three years ago … and those who think it’s time to move on, already. The question is, does an awards show like the Grammys have a responsibility to be be the moral judge of the choices and mistakes a performer makes in his or her personal life?
I guess that depends on your view of what the Grammys represent. The point of the Grammys, much like the Oscars, is to reward and recognize the work of artists in their given fields. A Grammy isn’t an award recognizing the guy who’s the best boyfriend, or who most respects women, or who isn’t a misogynist. And also like the Oscars, sometimes people who have personal issues — even reprehensible ones — are recognized by their industry colleagues for their work. Drug addicts. Alcoholics. Narcissists. And yes, men who hit their girlfriends.
Roman Polanski’s been nominated twice, and won once (for The Pianist, in 2002) since his 1977 arrest for the drugging and rape of a 13-year-old girl. Maybe you think the Academy, when it awarded Polanski the Oscar, was condoning the rape of 13-year-old girls, or rapists generally. Or maybe you think one of the things the Academy does is recognize the best directors of any given year, and that in 1981 and 2002, its membership simply considered that Polanski, regardless of his personal issues, was among the best in his field at directing films. Chris Brown, for all that he was a violent asshole on the night he beat his girlfriend in 2009, would appear to at least be trying very hard to change the underlying causes of his behavior and to take responsibility for it, which is more than you can say for Polanski. Polanski fled the country. Brown pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years probation. By all reports, he’s been following the terms of that probation. You can agree or disagree with the sentence he received three years ago, you can think our justice system is misogynistic and desperately in need of reform. But that has nothing to do with the Grammys and whether Brown’s album was deserving, musically speaking, of the win.
I’m not condoning domestic violence, and I’m certainly not out there Tweeting, “Oh please, Chris Brown, beat ME!” like those foolish girls who probably don’t have a clue what domestic violence looks like. But I am saying, you have to separate the personal life of the man from his professional life, which is what the Grammy Awards recognize.
Brown has been punished for his crime within the law. He was 20 years old when his assault of Rihanna happened. In the three years since, the courts have acknowledged what appears to be his sincere desire to change. He hasn’t (so far as I know) repeated his crime. People screw up, but people can change. Our entire system of justice is built around that principle, is it not? We have a graduated scale of punishments. The punishment for felony assault is not life in prison, or the death penalty, nor is it, “You can never work in your field again, or be acknowledged for doing your work well.” Chris Brown is a musician. That’s his job. The Grammy he won recognizes his achievement at that job, not his excellence as a person.
As to whether he deserved a Grammy on those merits, well, that’s another debate entirely.