(ThyBlackMan.com) Two weeks of headlines about William Roberts, and something keeps sitting heavy on my chest. Not because I know Rozay personally. Because I know us.
By now you have seen the stories. The rapper most of us call Rozay walked into a Miami Beach police station on October 1 and walked back out later that day after posting a $5,000 bond. Court records list one felony count of battery by strangulation and one misdemeanor battery charge. At the center of the public allegations stands a model named Jazzma Kendrick, who says she was treated like a punching bag during their relationship. She alleges that Ross injured her lip and left her fearing what might come next. Rick Ross denies the allegations, calling them fabricated, and has entered a not guilty plea. His arraignment is scheduled for October 22.
So we sit with two accounts. One from a sister who has gone public with allegations of abuse. The other from a famous brother who insists he did nothing wrong.
Here is where I want to slow down, since the internet never does. Scroll any timeline and you will catch grown folks turning a strangulation accusation into a punchline. They dismiss it as “that’s just how they move,” offering the same tired shrug we reserve for ordinary relationship drama. That shrug is the entire problem. A busted lip is not a spat. Someone being deprived of air, if the allegations unfolded as described in the police affidavit, is not simply a bad night. One of the charges is a felony, and both allegations deserve serious attention. We cheapen something serious when we file accusations of domestic violence under gossip.
Let me be plain about the part my people love to skip. Anybody accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and Rozay holds that same right any one of us would want for ourselves. I am not writing to convict anybody in a column. My aim is to pull the Brothers aside and point toward the lesson sitting under the headline, regardless of how this case is ultimately resolved.
That lesson is control.
The police affidavit describes a confrontation that allegedly began with a photograph and an Instagram tag. According to the allegations, jealousy fueled an argument in which Kendrick was struck, pulled by her hair, and choked when the collar of her hoodie was twisted until she could not breathe. Ross disputes these accusations, and the courts have yet to determine what happened. Still, the larger lesson reaches beyond this case. How many of us have felt jealousy or anger climb the neck and had to decide, right there, who we were about to be?
A real man answers that question with his hands down.
I came up when “handle it at home” meant keep it quiet, and quiet became the dark corner where too many sisters got hurt with nobody looking. We do not have to haul that inheritance another mile. Emotional control is not softness. Walking away to cool off is not weakness, and never was. The strongest brother I knew could swallow his pride with his whole chest on fire, and I never once watched him raise a fist toward the mother of his children. That is manhood. Call it the standard, and it costs nothing beyond discipline.
Respect belongs in this talk too, because folks sling the word around loose. Treating a woman right runs deeper than holding doors and covering dinner while her peace gets handled like an afterthought. Her body and her spirit stay off limits to your temper, permanently, no exceptions, no “she pushed me there.” Nobody pushes you into strangling somebody or using violence to settle an argument. That choice belongs to the person who makes it, and nobody else.
Now, about what Rick Ross has been doing while his case moves through the courts. With the October 22 arraignment approaching, footage circulating from a Miami nightclub reportedly showed Rozay spending time with an unidentified woman. The pair appeared affectionate, and one clip seemed to capture a kiss. Nobody outside that situation can say for certain who she is or what their relationship involves. Ross has also waived his right to attend pretrial conferences, allowing his attorneys to appear on his behalf, a decision that is not unusual in criminal cases. Neither his social activities nor that legal decision establishes anything about his guilt or innocence. Still, public appearances carry their own weight when serious allegations remain unresolved. A night out may be ordinary business for a celebrity, but the public is watching something far more serious than his social calendar. I will not pretend to know what sits in that man’s heart. What matters is that the accusations receive the attention they deserve and that the legal process remains fair to everyone involved.
This is not Ross’s first encounter with serious criminal allegations. Rewind to 2015. He was arrested in Georgia after groundskeepers at his estate accused him and an associate of assault, including an allegation that one of the men had been struck with a handgun. Ross disputed the accusations and maintained that he had acted in self-defense. The case concluded in 2017 when he entered a no contest plea to one felony count of aggravated assault, while the remaining felony charges were dropped. He also received probation in connection with misdemeanor charges and was sentenced under Georgia’s first offender provisions. That earlier case is part of the public record, but it does not establish guilt in the allegations he faces today. A past legal dispute may influence public perception, yet each case deserves to be judged on its own evidence.
My real worry has little to do with one wealthy entertainer. It sits with the young fella watching all of this unfold, soaking up the message that fame and money might place a man beyond accountability. He is learning whether a sister’s safety becomes negotiable the minute the name signing the checks is adored enough. Black men already carry an unfair fight through courtrooms and headlines, which is the very reason we cannot play loose with the truth whenever one of our own stands accused of hurting a woman. Protecting our image and excusing wrong behavior ride two different roads. Choose the first one every single time.
I keep circling back to Kendrick describing herself as a punching bag. We do not yet know how the courts will resolve these allegations or whether the case will reach a jury. The evidence must be examined, and the legal process must run its course. But somewhere tonight, somebody is living the painful experience those words describe, and she needs the people around her to recognize what is happening instead of dismissing it as another private disagreement. Nobody should have to wait for a celebrity trial to understand that domestic violence destroys lives.
So to my Brothers reading this, young ones and seasoned ones alike, take the lesson hiding inside an ugly situation. Guard your temper like the most valuable thing you own, because in the heated seconds that decide everything, it is. Love hard, argue when you must, and speak your piece. But keep your hands to yourself and your words respectful. Her trust is not something you shatter and glue back whole.
Finish story here; Rick Ross and the Lesson Black Men Cannot Ignore About Domestic Violence.
