Justin Timberlake is in hot water after his BET Awards tweet.
On Sunday night, Justin Timberlake was one of the many people to take to Twitter to praise Jesse Williams for his powerful speech at the BET Awards in Los Angeles. Shortly afterwards, a Twitter by the name of Ernest Owens asked the singer if he was going to stop appropriating black music and culture and apologize to Janet Jackson, which prompted a national discussion, and backlash against Justin Timberlake’s music career.
Timberlake responded by saying, “Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation. Bye,”
People became infuriated with Justin Timberlake’s “We are the same” comment, especially after Timberlake had just praised Williams on his speech, which focused heavily with the issues of Black Lives Matter and the lack of civil rights in America. Many Twitter uses have taken the opportunity to reply to him with younger photos of himself when he was in *NSYNC.
So does this mean you’re going to stop appropriating our music and culture? And apologize to Janet too. #BETAwards https://t.co/0FwBOQR24D
— Ernest Owens (@MrErnestOwens) June 27, 2016
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
@jtimberlake as a fan: all you have to do is listen. Don’t get defensive. Just listen. Hear what folks are saying.
— Anil Dash (@anildash) June 27, 2016
@MrErnestOwens stand your ground and speak your TRUTH his fans can defend his fuckery but I ain’t even for it
— iBobbyDeluxe (@iBobbyDeluxe) June 27, 2016
Justin Timberlake would later by tweeting an apology. Timberlake claimed he felt “misunderstood” and said that his reply to one person wasn’t meant to be construed as a general response to the issue. You can check out his tweets below.
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
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