Vic Mensa criticizes Justin Timberlake over cultural appropriation.
Following the BET Awards and activist/actor Jesse Williams’ speech at the awards show, singer Justin Timberlake took to Twitter to applaud Williams on his speech, but also stress “that we are all one.” Despite attempts to clarify himself, the crooner was subsequently dragged by those on the social media site over his comments.
Rapper Vic Mensa recently addressed Timberlake’s remarks, during an appearance on The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore. According to Radio.com, the Chicago wordsmith called out the singer for benefiting off of black culture, but not supporting it.
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“Our problem here is that Justin Timberlake himself, you know, is definitely benefiting from using black culture for his sound, his dance moves, his dancers, and blowing up off of it,” Vic Mensa said. “But if you roll down Justin Timberlake’s Twitter for the past two years, which I just did, you see nothing that supports black people when it’s more difficult, when there’s a struggle.”
Mensa then advised Timberlake to have a seat until he can show that he cares about issues affecting the black community.
“With everything that’s going on, and everybody that’s been killed by police on camera in the last couple of years, there’s no #BlackLivesMatter; there’s no ‘praying for Baltimore’, there’s no ‘praying for Flint’, you know, because that’s a dangerous subject for him to touch,” he said. “And we’re not feeling him being down when it’s beneficial to him, and turning a blind eye when it could be dangerous. Sit down until you show us you care. Don’t tell us shit unless you show us you care.”
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Vic Mensa later clarified on Twitter that his comments weren’t meant to “bash” Timberlake.
My statements on @TheNightlyShow were not to bash Justin timberlake. I was just shedding some light on the idea of cultural appropriation
— still alive (@VicMensa) June 30, 2016
