Justin Timberlake has been reminded the hard way about good intentions on Twitter – they generally pave the way to hell.
Responding to Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams’ speech at the BET Awards, Timberlake no doubt thought he was doing a nice thing when he tweeted support for the actor.
Jesse’s speech was a call to the industry to acknowledge black culture, instead of ‘extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoising and demeaning our creations, then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit’.
The speech gained plenty of support on social media, including from Justin who tweeted to his 55.6 million followers that he was ‘inspired’ by Williams while also re-tweeting a suggestion that Williams should run for President.
Now, Timberlake’s tweet, without any context or history attached to it, would be harmless. But thousands of people on social media feel that him – and his tweet – prove he is guilty of many of the aspects of cultural appropriation that Jesse Williams was talking about in his speech.
After all, the BET Awards themselves were in part created so that black artists could be given the credit they deserve.
Not to mention Twitter is a cold, hard place – and it wasn’t very long before critics started streaming in.
It was the ‘#inspired’ that caused the problem and sparked backlash:
Others were quick to mention Janet Jackson:
Another wrote: “So does this mean you’re going to stop appropriating our music and culture? And apologise to Janet too. #BETAwards.”
Janet Jackson, lest you forget, was the victim of the Superbowl ‘wardrobe malfunction’ when Justin accidentally tore her costume and flashed her nipples in front of millions of fans worldwide.
But Justin went on to explain himself:
Obviously, this was met with more criticism.
Twitter’s reaction? Less than caring:
But for all the criticism, the ‘Cry Me A River’ singer did get some support.
I don’t think Justin was trying to cause shit on Twitter by showing his support for the actor’s speech, but it’s very strongly viewed otherwise on social media.
