Sit Down, Justin Timberlake: Why Jesse Williams’ BET Speech Is Definitely Not For Him

Talk surrounding Justin Timberlake’s “inspired” takeaway of Jesse Williams’ impassioned 2016 BET Awards speech has yet to let up two days following the incident. Following the Grey’s Anatomy actor’s bold verbal attack on those who take elements of Black culture without respecting or defending the lives of Black people, the “Can’t Stop the Feeling” singer took to Twitter to loan his support to Williams’ words, before seemingly disproving his intent just moments after by downplaying his own repeated cultural appropriation offenses.

The backlash was swift and fierce, with most of “Black Twitter” (the colloquial title given to African-American users who frequent the social networking service) reminding Timberlake of just how his white privilege has helped him throughout his career in the music industry. In retaliation, many of the former *NSYNC-er’s supporters countered back that Timberlake was somehow being blasted for showing his support to his Black fan base and by connection, Black people all across America — except, that was never the reason people were angry with Timberlake.

On the contrary — although his “we’re all the same” reasoning is more problematic than most people who aren’t Black will ever understand, that alternate version of the “all lives matter” response that he gave in the face of a “Black lives matter” instance is the least of his issues. The problem isn’t the way in which he chooses to address such a problem, but how he has continually shown, time and time again, that he is part of the problem that African-Americans, like Williams, are trying to combat. Perhaps the time has finally come for someone to display just how many messes he has created within a community that he was, at one point, so welcomed by, beginning with the biggest one of all: Janet Jackson and the infamous Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show.

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

Before the fiasco that accidentally exposed the “All For You” entertainer’s right breast to the entire world, Timberlake couldn’t hold a match, much less a flame, to the fire that Jackson possessed in the music industry. There are way too many accolades, hit songs/albums, and other notable mentions to make note of in this piece, but let’s just say that everyone (minus her brother; more on him a bit later) was living in a world that was of her making, and at that time, no one had a problem with that. Fast forward to just seconds after the duo’s energetic performance was done, and the damage had already started to show — for Jackson alone.

All of the respect, love, and power that, at one point, seemed unbreakable and impenetrable for the global icon, began to dissipate and eventually rotted. The media began to relay to Jackson as an “aging pop star” who purposefully set things in motion at the Super Bowl as a way to build up attention for her then-upcoming Damita Jo album (a pop star with five No. 1 albums at that point, but we digress), while Timberlake, who was just getting his footing as a solo star in 2004, managed to escape the ordeal without blame mostly because he quickly joined the mob of Jackson stone casters.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight that took place about a week after the Super Bowl performance, an incensed Timberlake blamed the entire ordeal on Jackson.

“I don’t want to be involved with a stunt,” he spouted with a clear attitude, “that’s not my style. You know, I don’t have any reason to do [something like] this.”

From that point on, Timberlake began to be treated as a media darling, while Jackson, who had held steady as an empress of pop for more than two decades, found herself at the beginning of a sharp decline in both her career and public persona that affects her to this very day. Her music, her face, and even her name were purposefully and forcibly omitted from the public eye until around 2009, when her brother, Michael Jackson, died at the age of 50.

Justin has yet to make peace with Janet, who not only lost her well-deserved traction in music, but a person she considered a good friend.

“All of the emphasis was put on me,” she expressed to Oprah Winfrey in 2006. “I considered Justin a friend, [and] to a certain degree, he [left me hanging]. There are just some things you don’t do to [your] friends.”

Going back to Michael for a moment, Timberlake’s involvement in the duet version of the late singer’s 2014 hit, “Love Never Felt So Good,” is another questionable act that most media outlets have never touched on. Although Jackson was actually the catalyst in getting Justin to spread his wings and fly away from *NSYNC, the name “Michael Jackson” was rarely uttered by him until long after Jackson’s death.

Interestingly, Timberlake often went out of his way to sidestep Jackson’ name, in spite of the vote of confidence from the man himself, and the unmistakable “Michael Jackson sound” that was heard throughout his first album, Justified (even the producers of the LP, the Neptunes, said that they were inspired by Jackson’s Off The Wall and Thriller).

“When I sing, I don’t close my eyes and try to channel Michael Jackson,” he said to Billboard in 2002. “I think about Donny Hathaway. I think about how 100 [percent] present he was in his songs. He seemed to be living each word, each syllable as he sang it. That’s the energy I’m reaching for when I sing.”

Granted, props to him for, at least, giving another African-American singer some attention (even if that influence was strongly disproved by everyone around him), but he wouldn’t be heard for long — and by “he,” we mean Hathaway. By 2006’s Future Sex/Love Sounds and definitely by 2013’s The 20/20 Experience, the media began to note Timberlake as an updated Frank Sinatra, someone Timberlake ironically often noted as the correct correlation to his work ethic and sound. It wouldn’t be until 2014 — the year that Timberlake recorded vocals for the updated “Love Never Felt So Good” take — for him to finally put some respect on Michael Jackson’s name during an interview with, of all people, Oprah Winfrey.

And it’s not just the Jackson family that he’s steamrolled over, either. When legendary hit maker Prince passed away in April of this year, fans of the famed “Purple One” were livid at the way Timberlake mourned for a person he once grossly disrespected.

Prince, NOTHING COMPARES… #RIPPrince… https://t.co/KAserIRfgD pic.twitter.com/6qyF7VqNtV

— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) April 21, 2016

Back in 2006, following the release of Timberlake’s biggest hit to date, “SexyBack,” Prince joked at an Emmy party that the main lyric of the track (“I’m bringing sexy back…”) was one that made no sense.

“For whoever is claiming that they are bringing sexy back,” he said to the crowd, “sexy never left!”

The moment was never meant to be taken in anything but jest, but Timberlake was so offended by it, he took his feelings to the mic in “Give It 2 Me,” a collaborative track featuring himself, rapper/producer Timbaland, and songstress Nelly Furtado.

“Could you speak up and stop mu-mumbling, I don’t think you came in clear
When you’re sittin’ on the top, it’s hard to hear you from way up here
Now I saw you tryin’ to act cute on TV, ‘Just let me clear the air…’
We missed you on the charts last week, damn, that’s right, you wasn’t there
Now if se-sexy never left, then why’s everybody on my sh**
Don’t hate on me just because you didn’t come up with it
So if you see us in the club, go on and walk the other way
Cause our run will never be over, not at least until we say…”

Unsurprisingly, fans of Prince pointed this out to Timberlake in droves following his public memorializing of the “Purple Rain” star, but unlike his dismissal of African-American writer Ernest Owens (better known as the individual who started the hairy situation that Justin is now in), there was no witty retort on his end.

Here’s the thing: no one ever said that there was anything wrong with Justin Timberlake (or anyone who isn’t African-American, for that matter) finding something inspiring about Jesse Williams’ BET Awards speech — a lot of us did, to be honest, and it was a truly moving moment for an important cause that deserves a lot more attention than it ever gets.

However, when you are a major example of the issue that is being spoken about and yet, somehow don’t realize that you are continuously adding to said issue, there really is no place for you in the current conversation. All anyone is doing when it comes to calling out Timberlake is reminding him of one of the strongest sections of Williams’ speech:

“… the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. That’s not our job, alright; stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression.”

The only established record Justin has ever had in the African-American community is one that is not just wholly opposite of Williams’ call-to-arms, but one that actively and repeatedly dismisses his own ignorant wrongdoings whenever a person of color brings it to his attention. In short, Jesse Williams already told Justin Timberlake what he should be doing at this moment in time, but in case he forgot, here it is again: sit down, Justin.

[Photo by Jonathan Leibson/Stringer/Getty Images]