Justin Bieber has addressed his old racist remarks while imploring all his followers to ‘stand against racism’.
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For those of you who don’t remember, back in 2014 a video surfaced of a then-teenage Justin using the N-word while making a racist joke.
According to Page Six at the time, Justin – who was 20 when the video was released – was “just a teenager” when the clip was shot, and when “Justin realised it was wrong [he] went to Usher and Will Smith, who helped educate him.”
Now 25, Justin is acknowledging that hs ‘uneducated’ remarks were hurtful in a sincere apology post.
“When I was young I was uneducated and found myself saying really hurtful things not knowing the power of my words,” Justin wrote. “Racism Is still very prevalent and I want to use my voice to remind we are all human being[s] and all of EQUAL VALUE BEFORE GOD!”
This apology was much needed (even five years later), but for those who need a little more context let’s go into the details.
Back in 2014, The Sun obtained a video of the Sorry singer telling the racist joke, “Why are black people afraid of chainsaws?”
The clip then sees Justin delivering the punchline, despite multiple objections from the people around him, “Run n*****-, n*****, n*****, n*****, n*****,” Justin says, imitating the revving noise of a chainsaw while saying the N-word.
Aside from the apology, it’s important to remember that while Usher and Will Smith educating Justin was a nice thing to do, it is not a person of colour’s job to educate a white person on their racist behaviour, and a white person should not ask for that kind of emotional labour.
If you are called out for being racist you must educate yourself.
As for Justin, accepting his white privilege and the power of his words and understanding the need to still apologise 5 years later is being a good ally for POC, and we support it.
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