JT Fronts Up To Twitter After Being Dragged For His Jesse Williams Tweets

His acceptance speech about cultural appropriation, racism and social justice was powerful, educational and incredibly moving:

Justin Timberlake tweeted about it, saying he was inspired by it. However, his tweet started to gain some pretty important callouts in reply, from people who wanted to remind Timberlake he too is a white person who is guilty of appropriating black culture for profit and fame. 

@jtimberlake @iJesseWilliams Did you like the part when Jesse talked about white people stealing from us? That should resonate with you.

— sockruhtese (@sockruhtese) June 27, 2016

@jtimberlake he was talking about ppl like u though. Not Protecting black women. Gentrification of our art.

— MDW (@dcjanfan) June 27, 2016

@jtimberlake inspired to do what? Continue to emulate black culture through your music while ignoring issues affecting black people?

— Chrystal (@chrystallll) June 27, 2016

@jtimberlake when you figure out that you specifically are the problem he was talking about, let us know. hashtag it.

— Cody Kemmer (@codykemmer) June 27, 2016

RT @jtimberlake: @iJesseWilliams tho…#Inspired #BET2016 << pic.twitter.com/QBm2Zg2RSX

— At Least We Got Rome (@jjohnson9109) June 27, 2016

Yeah… I hope so.. RT @jtimberlake @iJesseWilliams tho…#Inspired #BET2016 pic.twitter.com/xaoYABU9IW

— Nawl Goodman (@ChrisTheFlyest) June 27, 2016

@jtimberlake @iJesseWilliams Its you!!!! you’ve been using black people for years and when we get murdered YOU ARE SILENT. GO TO BED, SIS.

— Nubia Baptiste (@OliviaandFitz) June 27, 2016

Then, he kind made everything worse by, in reference to a movement that acknowledges the issues that black people in the US are deeply and *exclusively* affected by, pulling the ‘we are all the same’ card:

Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation.

Bye. https://t.co/FeTmGLOKVc

— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) June 27, 2016

Today, Timberlake has tried to apologise for his comments, but it seems he gravely missed the point of what the thousands of responses were trying to tell him – again. Let us explore the 3-step guide of how not to apologise, as exemplified by JT:

1. He made it about himself. 

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

2. Pulls the ‘we are all equals, we are all one human race’ card again, which immediately minimises and attempts to erase the deep-seated, terrifying, and often fatal racial issues that People of Colour are affected by every single day of their lives:

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

3. Doesn’t apologise for his actual mistake, to acknowledge he has learned what he’s done wrong and won’t do it again. Instead, he applies the ‘If I offended anyone…’ line and apologises exclusively for the backlash:

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

Oh man, JT. Listening is easy, buddy.