We Need to Talk About Chris Brown’s Tweet About Kehlani’s Suicide Attempt

Trigger Warning for discussion of suicide.

Further proving why he’s a total scuzzbag, Chris Brown has responded to pop star/singer-songwriter Kehlani’s Instagram post wherein she opens up about how she attempted suicide after some rumor-based drama played out between her and her significant other, Kyrie Irving. Brown subtweeted (as much a celebrity can subtweet, I guess) about Kehlani, suggesting that she was faking the entire thing for attention.

The drama that caused Kehlani to attempt taking her own life centered around her relationship with Irving. After her ex-boyfriend, singer PartyNextDoor, posted a photo suggesting that they slept together, the rumors began to swirl, saying she had cheated on Irving. The rumors came with harassment because this is the internet and of course they did. It got so bad that she attempted to commit suicide. She shared her story in a post on her now-deleted Instagram. Again, this being the internet, it was screenshot before it went away.

You don’t need me to tell you that making fun of someone after they open up about attempting suicide is wrong. You also don’t need me to tell you that Brown is a fucking scumbag for doing it anyway. But what we do need to talk about is how this story serves as a bit of a reminder that despite Kehlani’s status as a well-known singer-songwriter, she, too, is human, and doesn’t deserve the hate dished out onto her thanks to some rumormongering.

The bullying leading up to her post was vile, and pretty typical of the kind of terrible things you can expect to see these days on the internet. According to Pajiba’s story about Brown’s comments, more than a few of the comments responding to the rumors involved people telling her that they hoped she’d die and things like that. That being said, it also looks like many comments were suggestions that people should stop slut shaming, and just let her be. However, those comments were drowned out, seemingly failing to have too much of an impact on Kehlani.

In fact, much of the support for her turned up in the days following the post, with plenty of notable music industry names tweeting or otherwise showing their support and love.

Since posting the photo and deleting her account, Kehlani is reportedly recovering and in good condition.

Here’s the thing, and hear me out: Brown’s tweet saying that she was “just doing this for the attention” is half right—Kehlani did need attention, and she got it when she was checked into the hospital for a psychiatric hold that night. People who feel suicidal are deserving of attention, regardless of what you might think of how they got to where they are. Let me fucking say that again for the people in the back: people who feel suicidal deserve our attention and love, and they for damn sure don’t deserve your derision or scorn after they attempt to take their own lives.

It’s this derision and scorn coming at the hands of such prominent names (even names like Brown’s), that make it so hard to talk about suicide in a healthy way. The taboo around talking about suicide impedes people’s search for help, further isolating said person and pushing them that much further away from recovery. Acting like a damn fool and making fun of them for being vulnerable and opening up about it after the fact is unspeakably disgusting. If anything, those actions are deserving of scorn.

That leads me to why we’re talking about this in the first place. It would be really freaking easy to write this off as Brown being the dirtbag that he is and just not care. In fact, I’m pretty sure some of the comments on this post will say as much; “Why is this news?”, “Why should we care?”, “It’s just a gross dude being a gross dude,” “Even negative press is good press for Brown, what are you doing?”

The thing is, Brown isn’t the focus here. He simply embodies everything wrong with how people respond to attempted suicide and the conversations surrounding that. To him, he’s “just being a piece of :poop emoji:.” But to the assuredly thousands of fans who follow him who will at some point deal with suicide in some way, shape, or form in their lives, he’s more than just a piece of shit.

Brown is who they’ll think of when they think about reaching out for help. His god awful tweet and the thousands upon thousands of supporters of its content will be what comes to mind if (god forbid) they find themselves in the same dark place Kehlani found herself that night. And while they suffer, Brown keeps tweeting his ignorance to his 15.9 million followers, being written off as a piece of shit “not worth talking about.” Now how is that okay?

If you ever feel like you might be dealing with thoughts of suicide, you can reach out to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1 (800) 273-8255.

(image via Shutterstock/Helga Esteb)

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Jessica Lachenal

Jessica Lachenal is a writer who doesn’t talk about herself a lot, so she isn’t quite sure how biographical info panels should work. But here we go anyway. She's the Weekend Editor for The Mary Sue, a Contributing Writer for The Bold Italic (thebolditalic.com), and a Staff Writer for Spinning Platters (spinningplatters.com). She's also been featured in Model View Culture and Frontiers LA magazine, and on Autostraddle. She hopes this has been as awkward for you as it has been for her.

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