Due to the current Black Lives Matter protests happening around the world following the tragic death of George Floyd, celebrities have taken to social media to express their disgust and displeasure about the occurrences. George Floyd was an unarmed Black man who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer.
According to a new Instagram post, the singer wrote last weekend that he’s planning to give back the best he can. “I am inspired by black culture. I have benefited off of black culture,” Bieber wrote on Saturday. “My style, how I sing, dance, perform, and my fashion have all been influenced and inspired by black culture. I am committed to using my platform from this day forward to learn, to speak up about racial injustice and systemic oppression, and to identify ways to be a part of much-needed change.”
In a separate post shared hours earlier, the 25-year-old also acknowledged his “shortcomings,” while expressing his commitment to bettering himself. Although he did not specify, Bieber’s posts may be in reference to two instances in which he was filmed using the N-word when he was 14 and 15. Explaining that he learned he had made a mistake from friends and family, he added: “Now that these mistakes from the past have become public I need to apologize again to all of those who I have offended.” The singer concluded his former apology stating “ignorance has no place in our society” and that he hopes that sharing his faults “can prevent others from making the same mistake in the future.”
It isn’t the first Black Lives Matter post Bieber wrote recently, having called for the arrest of the Louisville officers who killed Breonna Taylor and posting about George Floyd’s death at the hands of four police officers. In a recent live conversation about allyship with wife Hailey and CNN’s Angela Rye, the singer said he felt shame at his lack of anti-racist action before now. “I’ve been feeling shame in the sense of like, why did it take these men being killed for me to almost take a blanket over my eyes?,” he said. “Why now? I do feel bad when it comes to that.”
“I am committed to using my platform from this day forward to learn, to speak up about racial injustice and systemic oppression, and to identify ways to be a part of much needed change,” he added.
Written by
