Looks like Chris Brown has an unlikely ally in the celebrity world: Rosie O’Donnell.
The outspoken talk show host said on her radio show Friday that Chris' detractors, along with Good Morning America's Robin Roberts, may be guilty of racism.
That's because, O'Donnell, says, people criticized Brown's window-breaking tantrum on GMA more than, she argues, the equivalent by white stars is lambasted.
“I just don’t know why this kid seems to be held to a different standard than anyone else,” O’Donnell tells executive producer Janette Barber on the program.
Asked if the reaction, which Rosie addressed for the first time because she had been on vacation, was racially based, O'Donnell replied, “I totally think [it] is.”
“I also think it’s why he felt he was safer with Robin Roberts.”
O’Donnell doesn’t flesh out this point at all other than later adding that she felt “badly” for Chris Brown and “mildly angry” at Roberts while the interview.
Given the context, though, it wouldn’t be amiss to interpret it as an accusation of some sort of racial betrayal on Roberts’ part not to go easier on Brown.
O'Donnell added that she thinks on some level "that there is a societal paradigm in which you have to be an angel or a thug if you’re a black male.”
She argues that there is a pattern of maligning black male stars as violent when a white star's behavior might be more easily forgiven. But is this true?
Brown throws a chair through a window and everyone panics. Kanye West grabs a mic way from Taylor Swift and is torn to shreds by the press.
Meanwhile, Charlie Sheen becomes a weird drug-infused performance art folk hero. It's a little strange. But Brown also committed domestic violence.
O'Donnell's point of defense for Brown does have some merit, but Rosie never addressed the elephant in the room (Rihanna), weakening her case a bit.
At least in our opinion. What do you think of her comments?
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