Actor and self-admitted and criminally-charged abuser Jonathan Majors desires to make a Hollywood comeback.However earlier than we unpack that, right here’s a sport of “three issues might be true, and one factor nonetheless doesn’t change that.”
Sure, the ex-girlfriend he admitted to strangling in an audio recording – and was later convicted for harassing and abusing – is white.
Sure, the brand new girl in his life, actress Meagan Good – whom he rapidly dated and later married throughout his public downfall – is Black…like Coretta Scott King, to whom he as soon as infamously in contrast her.
Sure, there are white males in Hollywood who’ve confronted related controversies and gotten an opportunity to make a comeback (see: Sean Penn, Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen, Steven Seagal, Nicholas Cage, and extra), however even a number of of them needed to sit down for some years earlier than they got here again. Robert Downey Jr. needed to spend the higher a part of a decade cleansing up from a sample of substance abuse earlier than he just about constructed the Marvel Cinematic Universe brick by brick and so they began backing Brinks vans full of cash to his home.
“God’s obtained a plan for me,” Majors lately informed “The Breakfast Membership,” in describing how he’s shifting ahead. Comparable sentiments had been shared throughout his teary eyed interview on the “Sherri Shepherd Present.” There’s already backlash following the announcement that he’s going to be a particular visitor on Keke Palmer’s “Child, that is Keke Palmer” podcast subsequent week – so it’s apparent that the previous Marvel famous person is constant to push his apology-without-actually-saying-sorry tour.
And it ought to be famous that as a result of we stay in a world the place celebrities aren’t merely on a redemption tour free of charge – Majors can also be pushing his formally canned movie “Journal Desires” that’s tanking within the field workplace as we converse. Excuse the dearth of sympathy, however from the entire tears and non secular metaphors given by the actor – it’s onerous to inform whether or not he’s really attempting to do higher or if he’s going to proceed to carry out as a sufferer of an issue he introduced on himself.
As a result of if there’s actually a redemption arc to this fallen star – the place is the precise work? Significantly…crying throughout media press excursions and utilizing the already-beloved Good as a speaking level ain’t slicing it while you actually admitted to strangling a girl.
As we noticed with former NFL athletes Michael Vick and Ray Rice, who confronted controversy for being abusive to canines and girls, respectively, a part of making their manner again into the general public highlight got here with performing some type of tangible work. Whether or not it’s donating, talking out about home violence causes, and/or explaining how you propose to hunt skilled steerage (past household, pals and God) to be higher – extra precise doing reasonably than telling is required right here.
And as followers or onlookers of the actor, we must always count on the identical as properly. It isn’t sufficient to maintain justifying this lackluster comeback tour as merely a racial double customary between what white individuals get away with in comparison with us. Keep in mind: Black humanity and decency shouldn’t be decided by the efficiency of another race.
All comparisons apart: Johnathan Majors can not proceed to lean on distinguished Black ladies in media to assist salvage his picture – he really must work on it with precise actions, and never simply phrases. In any other case, this complete redemption try can flop similar to the film he’s attempting to self-promote proper now.
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Ernest Owens is an award-winning journalist and creator of “The Case for Cancel Tradition.” You may examine him out at ernestowens.com