Justin Timberlake Responds to Twitter User Calling Him Out for Appropriation (UPDATED)

Justin Timberlake gave props to Jesse Williams on his BET Awards speech and then responded to a Twitter user who called him out for appropriation.

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Complex Original

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UPDATED 6:10 a.m. EST: Justin Timberlake tweeted out an apology after causing controversy with his response to a fan's accusations of cultural appropriation. Timberlake claimed he felt "misunderstood" and said that his reply to one person wasn't meant to be construed as a general response to the issue. You can check out his tweets below.

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On Sunday night, Justin Timberlake was one of the many people to take to Twitter and give props to Jesse Williams for his powerful speech at the BET Awards in Los Angeles. Shortly after JT sent out the congrats to Williams, a Twitter user by the name of Ernest Owens asked the singer if he was going to stop appropriating black music and culture and apologize to Janet Jackson. "Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation. Bye," Timberlake responded, which has started a pretty big backlash in his direction on social media.

Mostly, people are upset for the "We are the same" comment, especially after Timberlake had just given props to Williams on his speech, which dealt heavily with the issues of Black Lives Matter and the lack of equality in America. To this point, Timberlake has yet to tweet anything else on the situation, but many Twitter users have taken the opportunity to reply to him with younger photos of himself when he was in *NSYNC. Jesse Williams has yet to address the situation, and it's unclear if he will at all. If you missed it, you can read all of Williams' powerful speech from the BET Awards right here. You can also see Timberlake's tweets below, and we'll continue to update this story when more comes from it. 

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