Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
When news broke that Bad Boy Records founder and music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and singer Cassie reached a settlement on the lawsuit that she filed alleging physical, mental and sexual abuse one day after the suit was filed, I was confused. How in the world did they come to terms so quickly? In my head, whatever happened must have been bad. While we may never know what happened between Combs and Cassie, we do, now have a leaked, heartbreaking video, which was obtained and published by CNN on Friday, of Combs assaulting Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016.
The abuse, which happened in March 2016 (per court records, Cassie’s lawsuit describes an assault at the same time) in the now-closed Los Angeles InterContinental Hotel, is disturbing to watch. Not just because you’re watching Combs kick, push, throw and drag Cassie (it must be harrowing for her to have to relive this trauma very publicly. As of this writing “Damn Diddy” is trending on X — as are “King Combs” and “Kim Porter”; I think we can assume they’re all related) but because it also makes you question every single thing this man who decided to go by the name Brother Love has done and is capable of doing. While the barrage of Diddy comeuppance will dominate the weekend, I hope we all maintain our humanity and realize that Cassie is on the other end of that video; who knows how much of this she might have gone through.
It also makes you wonder what else is out there on video. Combs had to know that hotels have surveillance going at all times, yet it seems as if he was so pissed that he didn’t care; it was more important to physically express his anger with Cassie than his concern over somebody ever seeing the footage. Perhaps he thought that he could buy the footage and everything would go away; rich people occupy this space that allows for the belief of money solving all problems. There is no evidence he did such a thing, and I can’t claim to know what goes on in the minds of people like Diddy, but if that was his bet, he lost that one big time. What made somebody hold onto this footage for eight years is beyond me, but the damage has now been done, and I don’t see a world where he is able to come back from this.
That alone should make the internet interesting over the next few days. In the aftermath of Cassie’s lawsuit going public, a pretty significant number of people on social media alleged that she was a gold-digger chasing Diddy’s dollars. She was labeled a liar at worst or somehow waited too long to accuse him of such things at best and should STFU and go sit down somewhere. They said if it was really that bad, she should have said something … then. People suck and those who have never been the subject of abuse have no idea what that experience is like. If you were one of those people assuming Cassie was a liar who had no business tarnishing the name of a fine, upstanding Black man who did so much for the Black community and historically Black colleges and universities, etc., you can kindly have a seat somewhere near the lady from Georgia with the “bleach blonde, bad-built butch body.”
I have no idea what’s going to happen in the next few days or weeks with Diddy. He should be done. Canceled. Run out of town. He shouldn’t be able to social media his way out of this but he wouldn’t be the first man who managed to wiggle out of abusing women and maintain some semblance of success. It took damn near a decade, documentaries and the entire tide of public opinion shifting on R. Kelly to finally get him, and my neighbors still blast R. Kelly like he just released “Chocolate Factory.”
Editor’s Note: If you or someone you know is dealing with intimate partner violence, reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Panama Jackson is a columnist at theGrio. He writes very Black things, drinks very brown liquors, and is pretty fly for a light guy. His biggest accomplishment to date coincides with his Blackest accomplishment to date in that he received a phone call from Oprah Winfrey after she read one of his pieces (biggest), but he didn’t answer the phone because the caller ID said: “Unknown” (Blackest).
Make sure you check out the Dear Culture podcast every Thursday on theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, where I’ll be hosting some of the Blackest conversations known to humankind. You might not leave the convo with an afro, but you’ll definitely be looking for your Afro Sheen! Listen to Dear Culture on TheGrio’s app; download it here.