James Brown had recently taken to the screen as mentor for E4's 'The Great British Hairdresser', but following his actions, E4 may want to review their decision to work with him in the future. In my opinion, his behaviour displays nothing relating to the words 'great' or 'British'.
Having seen his attitude and bitchy demeanor throughout the series, I had already decided that I wasn't keen on Brown. I understand that Fashion and Beauty is a cut-throat industry where opinions and facts are told brusquely everyday, but I think he put himself across as nothing short of ill-mannered and, to a point, relatively two-faced in numerous situations.
As well as being a celebrity Hair Stylist, he is also a 'close associate' of Kate Moss, and is clearly a second-rate celebrity eager to cling on to anybody famous.
On the night in question, Brown verbally attacked his then friend, Ben Douglas, by calling him a 'n****r's bitch'. He repeatedly used the N-word and drew attention to the fact that Ben was insulted by it.
The incident took place at the Bafta TV Awards, making this shameful act even more audacious; not only was this person able to use such vocabularly, he did it publicly, uncaring as to the ugly scene he had created.
After Ben refused to name the 'star' following the incident, Brown 'came clean' on Twitter, making a full apology for his actions.
He blamed his apparent 'issues with alcohol' for which he would seek immediate, professional help. He described the attack as an 'eye-opener' to his drinking problem and told how he was embarrassed and ashamed by his actions.
This is all bollocks, of course. Vocabulary as vile as that doesn't just appear from nowhere, intoxicated or not. I have been drunk on numerous occasions, and I have used language that I'm not proud of, but I have never been racist, sexist or discrimatory in any way. If you're not familiar with using racist terms, you will never 'accidentally' let slip racist terms when drunk. Simple as.
Typically, Brown immediately defended his actions by insisting that he had black friends, whom he referred to as 'brothers', a common slang term used for black men, and that members of his family had married into the black community.
So what? I am mixed-race but I know for a fact that certain family members are, if not racist towards the black and asian community, then down-right ignorant towards them and their culture. We all have associates or are connected to various races in some way or another, and to use these as an example of not being racist is ridiculous as well as insulting.
E4 should severe all ties with this loud-mouthed, ill-behaved racist, if only to put across the right message to viewers. The rules should be the same across the scope of Show Business and celebrity, and if Andy Gray can be sacked for his sexist comments live on air during a football match, then James Brown should be handed the same fate for publicly being racist at one of Television's most appraised and prestigious programmes.
It's just another display of selfish, irresponsible 'celebrities' with too many freebies and not enough reprimand.
As for his 'apology', I think somebody ought to show him the meaning of the word in the dictionary. Tweeting about how sorry he is, is not my idea of an apology and he should be focused on apologising directly to the only person who matters in this vindictive story-line- Ben Douglas.
His tweets tell me he is more concerned with saving face and his career, than the actual hurt and disgust he has caused many people who witnessed or read about the event afterwards.
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