Celeb News: JT Backlash Grows; JT Destroyed By Cosmo

Vin

Justin Timberlake Had It Coming

Quote:

Despite a career-long fascination with (and use of) black pop culture, Justin Timberlake has never done or said anything to prove he's in any way connected to or concerned with black Americans — at least not black Americans who exist outside of the recording studio.

He did not defend Janet Jackson when she was unfairly [criticized] for the exposure of her breast at the Super Bowl in 2004 (even though it was he who exposed it). People magazine even jokingly referred to Timberlake as the "teflon man" because the controversy didn't stick. He took advantage of that white privilege: As Jackson was disinvited from the Grammys a week later [and] forced to withdraw from the lead role in a Lena Horne biopic.

He has not spoken out about Black Lives Matter—if you go to search "Justin Timberlake Black Lives Matter," Google tries to autofill it with "Justin Timberlake Black Eyed Peas." This is not a man who is, or has ever been, down with the movement. He should be called out for it.

But as a celebrity who's presumably been PR-trained since age 8, Timberlake knows when to cater to the base. So on Sunday night, he tweeted a perfunctory "#inspired" message in response to Jesse Williams's amazing acceptance speech at the BET Awards — a speech that specifically addresses cultural appropriation in its closing.

Timberlake responded [to critics] in a way that was both unbelievable in its tone-deafness and completely believable in that Timberlake is a white man who has never acknowledged the depths of his own cultural appropriation.

Timberlake watched Williams's whole speech, apparently missed the part about cultural appropriation, and came away with a message that essentially boils down to #AllLivesMatter ("we are all one … a human race"). But, really, were we expecting better from Justin Timberlake?

Justin Timberlake used to have cornrows. He used to wear a Ja Rule-style bandana over those cornrows and sport huge diamond earrings in each ear too, doing his most to look like he'd just been invited to cameo in a Cam'ron video. Justin Timberlake thought dressing like he was a white boy at Darmouth trying real hard for the Tau Kappa Epsilon MLK Black Party was a good idea.

He's been using blackness as a convenient set dressing for his entire career. He collects and appropriates black talent when it suits him, and sheds it as soon as he slips into the town car. He was wrong this week, he's been wrong before, and I assure you that, shrouded in his cloak of white privilege — his teflon — he'll be wrong again. Only maybe the next time he's wrong, we can all be a little less surprised. And perhaps he'll trend a little less and the person whose shine he's stealing — Jesse's now, Janet before, God only knows who next — can trend a little more.

Read the full brutal aritcle here.

Jesus H. Christ. The article is brutal. It looks like it's finally happened—the Blacks are 100%
done with supporting Justin Timberlake in any form. The fact that it took this long...

Do you agree or disagree with the complete and utter destruction in the article?

Enlighten me with your thoughts on this discussion.

...Vin

MillionLights

I mean, I can't say anything negative about my father.

MingYouToo

oops.

I guess Can't Stop The Feeling will begin to freefall on all formats except Pop.

Dylobs

He should've just kept his damn mouth shut

karma police

Vin

The fact that the article compared Justin Timberlake to a white boy dressing up to go to a racist college party.

I can 100% imagine (and believe) that Justin Timberlake, at some point in his life,
had a racist Tau Kappa Epsilon MLK Black Party at his house with *NSYNC and friends.

...Vin

princedonte

He don't owe us a thing I wish they would stop with this. We have no allies what a lame movement.

Dessy Fenix

Ryuuchan_X

Janet's revenge

Yndda

he should have just ignored the tweet

Syňth

Oh, mess. I mean there's plenty of truth there but it's wrapped in tumblr privilege jargon and pretentiousness. JT deserved a nip in the butt but not real backlash.

Nayke

Good, destroy ha.

qurl

granted i don't think EVERY black person is done w/ JT bc he had a decent amount of support from black audiences, ya i can see this really potentially hurting him in the long run

that Can't Stop the Feeling song is utter garbage tarnishing his above average discography (as if 20/20 Part II didn't do enough), and his comment was super 'All Lives Matter'-y and almost kinda the exact opposite of what Jessie Williams was saying which is what makes it so comical that he tried to ride that wave

if he makes another great album I'll obviously listen to it but he needs to do *A LOT* better after this mess, super disappointed that one of the few male vocalists and artists that i enjoy messed up this bad . . . . .

Harry

I'd love to think so but his song is still #1 on iTunes with a green update

Floyd Mayweather

GET HIM

biebervelli

Theres only room for one Justin

Otter

The whole idea of artists having to use the hashtag blacklivesmatter in order to make RnB music is ridiculous. I especially can't take this from Cosmo.

The idea of him collecting and dropping black talent is a joke. His band has been primarily black for the last decade and his main collaborators have remained Timberland and Pharrel, he done a joint tour with Jay and contributed a fair bit Beyonce's Self Titled because of a closeness. These think pieces always trying way to hard, just call him out for the tone deaf "we're all the same" response and leave it at that.

"He's been using blackness as a convenient set dressing for his entire career. " Except he hasn't for over a decade, he dropped the "urban" look after the Justified era back in 2003, a time when it wasn't deemed culturally insensitive by the vast majority of blacks & liberals, its was simply trendy.

maldam

**** Justin TBH

gettsleazy

Righfully so. Ruin him.

Lyrical.

Good. He never gets called out on this, it has to happen now.