Justin Timberlake's Racially Offensive Comments

July 24. 2008

Justin Timberlake

Justin Timberlake hosted the ESPY awards last week. During the show, he made racially offensive statements that drew the ire of black people. He stated that an injured African-American basketball player should get back to “shucking and jiving” on the court.

“The show's editors got to exact their cutting-room tactics early on in the show, when Timberlake's monologue took an uncomfortably racial turn.

The gaffe occurred as the host was teasing Paul Pierce about his "injured" knee in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, sports blog FanNation.com reports. In describing how Pierce quickly came back after being taken off on a wheelchair, Timberlake joked that Pierce was back on the court, "shucking and jiving." According to reports, the comment was met with silence from the audience.

The phrase has it's origins in slavery and is, to some, an offensive reference to the black person's historical subordinance to whites.”

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