Justin Timberlake Apologizes After Backlash Over Jesse Williams Speech

justin timberlake jesse williams-the jasmine brand

Justin Timberlake has taken to Twitter apologizing about the tweet that he wrote about Jesse Williams’ speech during the BET Awards. Last night, the actor received the Humanitarian Award and told the audience and viewers:

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. Ghettoizing and demeaning our creations, then stealing them, gentrifying our genius, then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though, just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.

See the clip.

After the speech, Timberlake tweeted:

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After the tweet, he was called out by a Twitter user, about his epic Super Bowl performance with Janet Jackson:

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Timberlake later apologized:

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P.S. Was Timberlake ‘out of turn’ for being inspired about Williams’ moving speech?

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Authored by: TJB Writer

There are 7 comments for this article
  1. jd at 12:20 pm

    Haters should really leave Justine alone. He LOVES soul music. It’s what happens when you’re from Louisiana as he is. He’s also smart enough to hire song writers and continue taking vocal lessons. All of the mail R&B artists who aren’t doing as well should take a page from his book.

    • Darknlovely at 12:30 pm

      @jd….Really? Justin T is not Black!!!Please listen to Jesse’s speech again. Justin T has benefited enormously on our Black Culture. Period. Honestly, not being mean – I have not seen him out protesting these kids getting shot down. I love everyone but, IDC to hear his comment.

    • Kim at 7:51 pm

      Jd,This is what we have to stop doing.Because we are a loving people we have a tendacy to give people passes.What Justin said was out of line.He did one of the things that Jesse mentioned in his speech.He said something like if you don’t have anything to contribute to our cause be quiet and sit down.And Stop telling us how to feel about our situation.How is Justine gonna tell someone “If only we would understand”?What the hell don’t we understand about what we’re going through?They can say everything to us but SORRY.

    • K. at 8:49 am

      He’s not from Louisiana, he’s from Tennessee.

  2. Danielle at 12:44 pm

    So what he’s from Louisiana. And since he’s from there, he should know because there was deep racism in Louisiana

  3. Anonymous at 5:56 pm

    Everyone who commented listened to ,sang and liked Justins songs. If not for Jesse saying what he did you would still like Justin. Let’s get real people.

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