Justin Timberlake Gets Heat for Twitter Comment About Racism

Justin Timberlake just wanted to give Jesse Williams some props. But the pop icon found himself facing a social media storm on Monday after making an ill-received Twitter post about Williams’ passionate anti-racism speech during the 2016 BET Awards.

• See related article: Jesse Williams Gives Epic Black Lives Matter Speech, BET Awards: WATCH

Williams’ fiery diatribe – which some pundits are calling one of the most memorable in awards show history – blasted critics of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has come under fire from law enforcement agencies and other opponents for its political views and tactics.

Williams also called out entertainment industry profiteers who make money off black culture without promoting equality.

“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," Williams said. "Ghettoizing 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.”

This facet of Williams’ speech was what inspired the backlash against Timberlake, who posted the following Monday morning message on Twitter:

“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.”

Timberlake’s comment set off a flurry of responses that suggested that the Caucasian singer and actor’s success was the type of appropriation of African-American culture that Williams referenced in his speech.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons