Your best friend was born and raised in this town
and being born and raised in this town means loving basketball.
Scratch that- it means worshipping.
The game, the team, the fanfare of it all.
So when you go to a concert on a warm October night
and see the team there, you ask them if you could all
take a picture together and they say yes.
In 1977, Roman Polanski raped a 13-year old girl.
He was arrested and charged with rape by use of drugs,
perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious acts upon a child
under 14, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.
When he learned he would likely be facing imprisonment
and deportation, Polanski fled to France. In 2009, Polanski
was detained at Zurich Airport. While he was in custody,
over 100 people in the film industry publicly called for his
release in a petition. Since 1979, he has won twenty awards
for his filmmaking.
As the flash of the camera is going off, the shooting guard of the basketball team
who has rosary beads tattooed around his wrists
slips his hands between your best friend’s legs
sliding his fingers into her through her leggings.
In the picture, her mouth is opened into an “o”
of surprise.
In 1985, Bill Cosby allegedly raped Barbara Bowman.
42 other women have come forward with their
accounts of sexual assault and rape at the hands
of Bill Cosby, with the earliest incident dating back to
1965. Although accusations of sexual assault and rape
have chased Cosby for decades, it has not impacted his
life, career, or marriage. In 2009, he won the Mark Twain
Prize for American Humor and in 2010, he won the
Marian Anderson Award, which honors individuals
who have changed society through their art.
You keep asking what’s wrong and when she tells you,
your heart drops into your feet. 20 minutes later,
you watch him get kicked out of the concert.
So you follow him.
In 1990, Charlie Sheen shot his fiancé, Kelly Preston, in the arm.
Six years later, he was arrested for repeatedly beating
his girlfriend, Brittany Ashland. He pleaded no contest to battery
charges and got two years probation and a $2,800 fine.
In 2006, his wife Denise Richards got a restraining order against him
after repeated threats of violence from Sheen.
In 2010, he was the highest-paid actor on TV.
And you scream. And your best friend sits on a curb
across the street and she cries. And you scream.
And she’ll never talk about this night again.
And he asks you what the fuck you want from him.
And you say leave her alone leave us alone.
And you scream. And she cries.
In 2000, Eminem’s wife Kim Mathers attempted suicide
after he performed a song detailing his desire to violently
murder her while beating a blow-up doll on stage that was
meant to resemble her. During that same year, Eminem released
a song expressing hatred toward his mother and his longing
to rape her. “Just bend over like a slut OK Ma? Oh, now he’s raping
his own mother, abusing a whore, snorting coke, and we gave him
the Rolling Stone cover”. Despite a history of violence and songs that
are rife with misogynistic, abusive, and homophobic themes,
Eminem has won 15 Grammy Awards throughout his career and in
2013, was awarded the Global Icon Award at the MTV European Music Awards.
She didn’t ask you to touch her she didn’t want this
you have no right she didn’t want this how could you
how could you how could you.
In 2009, Chris Brown was charged with felony assault
for a vicious attack against his girlfriend Rihanna on the
night before the Grammys. Brown was sentenced to five years
of probation and 1,400 hours of community service.
In 2012, Chris Brown won his first Grammy. In 2015,
he sat in the audience of the Grammy Awards as
President Obama issued a PSA imploring the country
to help stop violence against women and girls. “Artists have a unique power to change minds and attitudes,
and get us thinking and talking about what matters.”
That night, Chris Brown was nominated for the
Best Urban Contemporary Album Award.
Three months later, you’re watching a basketball game with your friends
and the boy with the tattoo of the rosary beads makes a 3-pointer
and your best friend looks away from the TV but that doesn’t stop
the stadium from erupting in cheers and they’re chanting his name
and they’re chanting his name and they’re chanting his name.
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