Throughout last night’s 2015 BET Awards, social media users had a lot of questions about Rihanna:
First came, "Why is she seated next to convicted woman beater Floyd Mayweather?" Then we had, "Why is she playing with a role of duct tape?" And finally, "Oh no, they’re not building to some joke that’s gonna make everyone uncomfortable, are they?
A number of outraged viewers already took issue with the show’s decision to show Rihanna singing along with Chris Brown’s performance, so when RiRi bound and gagged Floyd in an apparent reference to his history of savagely assaulting the women in his life, well…let’s just say it didn’t go over well with some.
A handful of Twitter highlights from the evening’s obvious low point:
"Rihanna (a victim of domestic violence) is sitting next to Floyd Mayweather (a wife beater). Awkward."
"So f–king trash…Do better, BET Awards."
"If nothing else, the optics of Floyd next to Rihanna feel off and not thought-through."
"Was Floyd being gagged and bound supposed to be funny? Help me understand the joke please?"
You get the idea. Folks were confused at best, and pissed-off at worst.
It’s important to note that it’s possible that producers didn’t consider the domestic abuse angle when they wrote the joke, but this is one of those cases where ignorance is no excuse.
In fact, is there really ever an excuse for giving Floyd Mayweather more attention?
