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Justin Timberlake has been forced to apologise after a tweet he posted following Jesse Williams’ moving speech at the BET Awards caused widespread outrage.
The “Can’t Stop The Feeling” singer was accused of giving a racially insensitive and ignorant reply to another Twiiter user who questioned JT about appropriating black culture after he tweeted that he was inspired by Williams’ speech.
Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation.
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
Many users were quick to criticise Timberlake for failing to acknowledge his white privilege in the entertainment industry and the discrimination and specific issues facing black Americans.
@jtimberlake go ahead be inspired, but you have a platform to speak up on issues that affect the cultures you’re appropriating.
— lizzy avila-morales (@_LIZZYPANTZ) June 27, 2016
@jtimberlake ur privilege got u here. Respect the people who will bring it to your attention instead of trying to embarrass them on Twitter
— shelly from da block (@OhItsShell_) June 27, 2016
He later responded to the uproar, explaining that he felt “misunderstood” and attempted to clarify his comment.
I feel misunderstood. I responded to a specific tweet that wasn’t meant to be a general response. I shouldn’t have responded anyway…
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
I forget this forum sometimes… I was truly inspired by @iJesseWilliams speech because I really do feel that we are all one… A human race
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
I apologize to anyone that felt I was out of turn. I have nothing but LOVE FOR YOU AND ALL OF US.
–JT
— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016
The controversy followed the exceptional speech made by actor Williams as he accepted the Humanitarian Award at the BET Awards “for his continued efforts and steadfast commitment to furthering social change”.
Later in the broadcast Samuel L. Jackson commented that it was the closest thing he has seen to a speech delivered by a Civil Rights activist in the 1960s.
The Grey’s Anatomy star dedicated his award to those “all over the country, the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realising that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do. It’s kinda basic mathematics: the more we learn about who we are and how we got here the more we will mobilise.”
It was his closing comments that Justin Timberlake should have been paying more attention to,
“We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold! – ghettoising and demeaning our creations and stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit.
“Just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real. Thank you.”
