By Jayar Jackson
Now that everyone has had the chance to see the ESPYs 15 times in the last few days, the controversy of Justin Timberlake's hosting performance has made its rounds.
Boy bander turned all-around entertainer JT seems to be making a living off of his sports related performances needing a tape delay.
How could anyone forget his role in the infamous wardrobe malfunction at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime performance with Janet Jackson, forcing CBS to implement a tape delay to avoid the FCC the next time around?
Well, our man Justin has now brought his line pushing to the doors of ESPN.
While joking about the Celtics' NBA Champion Paul Pierce's knee injury from Game 1 of the Finals this year, Timberland described his dramatic return as "shucking and jiving" back onto the floor. Although he had been getting laughs all evening, reports say that this joke evoked crickets from the audience of celebrities and professional athletes.
In case you're wondering, Pierce is Black and the term "shuckin and jivin" is a racially offensive way to describe Black people in trouble. It dates back to slavery days in America where a slave may try to quickly come up with a story to tell a White authority figure to get himself out of some mischief.
If it's still not sinking in, the negative imagery that comes to my mind is a Black man, fumbling and stuttering over his words, obviously lying to avoid some sharp and severe punishment for stepping outside of his box. He thinks he's smart, but he'll never fool the wiser White guy.Unsurprisingly, ESPN utilized their 4 day gap between taping and broadcasting the event to edit out the controversial joke.
Should fans be annoyed and upset over Timberlake's irresponsible use of the term? Definitely. Should Timberlake apologize and move on with his life? Of course, that's what celebrities do. Should people assume that he is a racist that harbors negative thoughts and feelings about Black people? Hell no.
First of all, no one even knows who wrote that joke, and even if Timberlake did, it's pretty apparent that it was misplaced. The images of Pierce bouncing back onto the basketball court after being taken out on a wheelchair probably looked a little like a dance to some. The "jiving" of Timberlake's lame joke seemed to fit in his mind, not realizing that the term has origins of hate, ridicule, and mistreatment.
Pierce wasn't explaining anything, he wasn't coming up with a story to get himself out of any trouble as the term requires.
Bottom line, let him go; stop calling him a racist, a "wigger," (a term I happen to hate) and just keep buying his music every guy tries to hate, but secretly loves. Go ahead, play "FutureSex/LoveSounds the next time your boys come over (because you know you secretly have it). You'll get clowned at first, but they'll soon subconsciously start bobbing their heads!
