Benjamin Zephaniah has died

[Glitterbiscuits]

I just read this.

I always found him interesting. I think it probably because I'm a white woman that grew up in a white area I needed to hear about the experiences of others whose lives were different from mine.

‘He was only violent towards ONE woman and he said sorry!’

Ah well, that’s all right then.

I’ve seen it all now.

My thoughts are with the woman he was violent towards if she’s still
alive- it can’t be easy watching people fawning over and making excuses for your abuser.

Disgusting, shameful apologism. Why do some violent men get a pass just because they were talented?

What a thoroughly dishonest misrepresentation of @ImNunTheWiser's post.

@Blackxmascushion

the same thing happened when Tina Turner singer's ex husband died quite recently, IKe too,

yes both these men were talented in different ways, but let's not apologise for the fact they were crap partners too in the past,

by being honest you don't diminish their memories, but rembering them, as "warts and all" flawed human beings aswell...

Just like all of us are not perfect either,

Ah, I see that he actually confessed to hitting more than one woman, it was girlfriends plural that he abused!

He said sorry though, so it’s fine. And he was good at writing poems and seemed nice so let’s just gloss over the fact he was a violent abuser.

Always so depressing to see women making excuses for violent men. There’s imperfect, then there’s this. Hitting women is not just some quirky little character flaw to be overlooked because someone was otherwise talented and nice.

Have some standards FFS.

Agree. Please quote people accurately if you're going to disagree with them.
And I don't think Ike Turner is a meaningful comparator. AFAIK he never apologised or showed contrition or any self-awareness or self-searching.

Why are you comparing him to Ike Turner? They have absolutely nothing in common, apart from skin colour.

This is interesting.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/02/benjamin-zephaniah-admits-to-hitting-a-former-girlfriend

@Redebs

He admitted that he regretted that when he was much younger that he fell out with ex girlfriend and he mistreated he once.

I get he was popular and its definitely sad, that he is no longer around for sure,he was as i said, he was Witty and intelligent, engaging and charismatic but he wasn't perfect, he had his flaws like the rest of us have

Nobody is perfect,

I understand where you may be getting at and feel passionate about that it's inappropriate to say about that, especially he has only just passed died..

Sorry to have caused offence to said about this at such a time...

@Redebs

Actually i have been doing a lot of personal reflection,

i have decided, i did a diservice with my earlier post,
I have respect for Benjamin Zephaniah for being so open and honest about his mistakes,
and also respect that he reflected on himself and made the necessary personal changes that go with it,
"he didn't just talked the talk, but walked it too clearly,"
which is no mean feat", which is very hard to do when you have had a toxic masculinity male role model as child growing up like he did, and misogynistic societal culture,

Not many people would be as honest as he was ,
Not many people are self aware and emotionally intelligent and motivated enough to change for the better...