Which celeb set off a Twitter firestorm? Justin Timberlake of all people.
The singer caused a flare up last night after tweeting about a moving speech delivered by Grey’s Anatomy actor Jesse Williams during the 2016 BET Awards ceremony. Williams received the Humanitarian Award for his efforts to raise awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement. During his speech, he touched upon racial issues, social justice, and cultural appropriation.
Timberlake’s initial tweet didn’t make people upset, it was his response to this particular critique below:
The 35-yer-old celebrity’s dismissive response caused other social media users to urge Timberlake to check his privilege and use his celebrity status to speak about social issues. Realizing his mistake, Timberlake backpedaled with a series of apology tweets after getting waves of negative feedback.
The heated Twitter conversation didn’t end with Timberlake’s apology, his sequence of Tweets sparked a Twitter discussion with some outlining where Timberlake went wrong, some defending the star, and others wondering what exactly all the controversy was about.