Chris Brown fans have taken a stand after a self-proclaimed “disability ambassador” accused the singer of mocking people with disabilities on a recent tour stop.
On Friday (March 3), activist Brett Leverton took to Twitter and LinkedIn to share a video clip taken from Breezy’s IG Stories. The video shows him walking in an exaggerated limp, with a caption that reads: “I tried to be slick walking to the merch booth.. FANS caught me so I had to hit my walk on em [crying laughing emoji].”
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Leverton expressed that he was not only disappointed by Chris Brown’s actions, but that he also felt like the video might encourage Team Breezy to make fun of others as well.
“Disappointed last night to log in to Instagram to see Chris Brown casually imitating/mocking people with physical impairments/disabilities and thinking it’s ok,” Leverton wrote. “I hope this gets the same outrage and energy towards it as it would if it was discrimination of any other kind.”
Beyond the “Under the Influence” singer’s social media reach, Brett Leverton called out what he felt was hypocrisy in Brown poking fun at one marginalized group while complaining about the ways in which he felt he’d been discriminated against.
“A few weeks ago the same person took to Instagram to claim he was treated differently by the media because he is a person of colour,” Leverton added. “In the modern world, where discrimination is tolerated less and less. Why would someone who knows first hand what it feels like to face discrimination go and do the same behaviour to another minority group?”
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Leverton went on to delete the post on Twitter, but not before Brown’s fans issued accusations of their own, stating that the activist had misread the moment and taken the video out of context.
“I feel like y’all be so bored and need something to complain about,” one fan wrote. “I’m not even a CB fan and see nothing wrong with this video. As far as I remember he’s always been goofy. I’m sure he meant no harm!”
Another fan offered: “Okay and I’m sure Chris wasn’t being any way harmful to disabled ppl y’all gotta stop it he had a charity regarding disabled kids why would he mock them y’all just reach for no reason but God bless y’all.”
“Did he record him self and say ‘look guys im a disabled person’,” another reply read. “U gasping for anything to hate on him it’s ridiculous u took a video that he didn’t even record him self he got recorded by a fan trying to walk away from them u talking about he mocking disabled ppl.”
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Chris Brown has been a polarizing figure for the bulk of his career, and continues to feel the ramifications of his 2009 assault on Rihanna.
Last month, Chloë Bailey came under fire after announcing that she would be collaborating with Breezy on a new song titled, “How Does It Feel.” While the collaboration was met with excitement from some fans, many took issue with the Bailey sister’s decision to link up with Chris Brown given his history of alleged violence against women.
“We’re failing Black women in music if they feel like they have to collaborate with a known abuser in order to chart,” one person tweeted before listing off numerous other male R&B singers she could have worked with, including Bryson Tiller,Lucky Daye and Brent Faiyaz.
That afternoon, Chris Brown responded to the backlash with a series of Instagram posts addressing his critics.
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“IF Y’ALL STILL HATE ME FOR A MISTAKE I MADE AS A 17 year old please kiss my whole entire ass,” Brown wrote in his Instagram Story. “I’M FUCKING 33! I’M SO TIRED OF Y’ALL RUNNING WIT THIS NARRATIVE..YOU WEIRD ASS N-GGAS are the SAME ONES THAT TUNE IN EVERY WEEK TO SEE BLUEFACE CHRISEAN BEAT THE SHIT OUT EACH OTHER IN FRONT OF THE WORLD.”
Check out more responses to Brett Leverton’s accusations below:
