chris-brown_rihanna.jpgI believe in equality. I believe in America. I believe in all the ideas that promote the idea that all men are created equal. But that statement, though poetic and historic, has often time led to the subjugation, silencing, and systematic disenfranchisement of women.

It was women who bandaged wounded soldiers during the American Revolution.

It was a woman who led a generation of people who would not be enslaved through the woods of the south toward the dream of northern freedom.

It was women who banded together and fought for the right to vote, the right to hold office, and the right to be heard.

It was women who worked bomb assembly lines in an effort to support our nation during a time in which the world seemed at war.

It was a woman who decided that on that faithful day she would not give up her seat and move to the back bus. It was that woman’s courage that served as a catalyst to one of the greatest efforts for equal rights this country has ever seen.

Throughout the years women have fought and clawed for more than the right to be heard, but the right to be respected. Women have burned bras’ in the name of equal pay for equal work. They have marched for a woman’s right to choose, they have fought to bring an end to sexual discrimination in the work place, and countless other women’s rights and causes.

Yet despite all these advances since the beginning of our great nation, one right has continuously eluded them…the right to get their ass whooped.

With the playing field being even in so many other areas the fact that a woman can’t take a well-deserved ass whoopin is sexist, elitist, derisive and extremely contemptuous.

The fact that women are someone above getting an ass whoopin speaks to a history of hatred and injustice, and it must stop. These taboos about men hitting women are based purely in the idea that women are this fragile flower that must be preserved at all cost. The idea that hitting a woman is socially unacceptable is as outdated as the idea that all Asian people are good at math. The great Chris Rock was extremely prophetic when he stated that “Nobody is above an ass whoopin,” and Chris could not be more correct.

Women however, are very much aware of the concept that hitting them is like hitting Christ. So they consistently push the envelope. Women will insult you, belittle you, condescend to you, expose you, embarrass and disrespect you because they know that nothing they say or do will justify you breaking them off with a two-piece to the nose.

And herein lies the injustice. If a woman does something that a man would be hit for, she should be hit for also. Why does the fact that she comes with a vagina exempt her from the consequences of her actions? Why are women allowed to strike men without the fear of being struck back? Why are men routinely hauled off to jail on domestic abuse charges when it is the woman who was initially the physical aggressor?  It makes no sense and I do not subscribe to the notion that women are untouchable.

With that said, I have outlined 3 reasons that should be universally accepted as justified reasons to lay hands on a woman. It is my hope that this 3 will not serve as the end of this argument, but rather as a means to bringing equality to his age-old issue of discrimination.

3. If you catch your woman in YOUR bed with another man.
You have EVERY right to strike her with the closed fist of justice. What she has done is wrong and disrespectful and my prayer is that you will keep your cool, but if you didn’t, who could blame you.

2. If your woman has a weapon.
The image of the pan wielding wife has been a common one for generations, but understand this, if your woman is swinging pots, pans, knives, or sticks, you have a right to disarm her, even if that means poppin her in the nose. Even if she doesn’t have a weapon, if she puts hands on you, return the favor.

1. She deserves it.
As a man, I know what I can and cannot say to another man. Certain insults are automatic bids for a fight, while others can simply be shrugged off. There are certain things a woman can say that cross the line. Disrespect of ones mother, confession of infidelity, or a pattern of verbal abuse over a sustained period are all grounds for reality check to the jaw.

With that in mind, my thoughts and prayers go out to Chris Brown, because I believe either #2 or #3 happened that night. So while Chris is being crucified in the public eye, I keep asking myself this question, what happened in the car that night? So while Mr. Brown will eventually face trial and eventually have his fate in the hands of the State of California, I argue that justice was served in the car that evening. That when Chris placed hands on her he officially made Rihanna equal. He officially erased any doubts that RiRi might have had regarding fairness in this nation, by striking back, Chris did more for women’s rights than many of the women who are so up and arms regarding the news.

So with a clinched fist and while looking at my woman out the corner of my eye, I challenge all of us to speak out in favor of the equality so many men and women died for.

Chris Brown, you said enough of the hypocrisy and double standards, and for that you are my Rosa Parks.

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