Singer-songwriter Justin Bieber recently dropped his sixth studio album, titled ‘Justice,’ and post its release the singer received some backlash for including a Dr. Martin Luther King Interlude.
According to Fox News, the 27-year-old singer spoke about the criticism for paraphrasing some of Dr. Lord’s ‘Yet If Not’ sermon he gave in 1967 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
The ‘Peaches’ singer spoke to Bieber Nation co-founder Kristal Terrell on the application Clubhouse about being labelled as a ‘white saviour.’
“Being Canadian… they didn’t teach us about Black history. It was just not a part of our education system,” the musician explained via Billboard.
The singer also confronted that he made “uncaring jokes when I was a child” and was a contributor to the issue “since I simply didn’t know better.”
Bieber expressed, “I need to continue growing and finding out just all social injustices and what it looks like for me to be better, what it resembles for my friends to be better, for my friends to be better. And I know I have a long way to go. I love that when people are listening to my album, these conversations are coming up and they’re like, ‘Well, how is he going from Martin Luther King into a love song?'”
Bieber added, “I’m not trying to make an association among me and Martin Luther King. That is the reason I never attempt to discuss social injustice or I would not like to be the one to discuss it since I simply have a lot more learning to do.”
The ‘Holy’ singer stated that he simply needed to “amplify” the civil rights pioneer’s “incredibly touching speech” and get conversations started about injustice.
Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. King, took to Twitter to support Bieber’s use of her father’s words in his album.
“Each of us, including artists and entertainers, can do something. Thank you, Justin Bieber, for your support, in honor of #Justice, of The King Center’s work, and of our #BeLove campaign, which is a part of our global movement for justice,” she tweeted.
As detailed by Fox News, when Bieber declared ‘Justice,’ he hoped the album could bring people together.
“In creating this album my goal is to make music that will provide comfort, to make songs that people can relate to and connect to so they feel less alone,” he wrote.
Before ‘Justice’, Bieber had released ‘Changes’ on February 14 last year, featuring singles ‘Yummy’, ‘Intentions’, and ‘Forever’. The album was nominated for the best pop vocal album at the Grammys and served as his return to music since releasing ‘Purpose’ in 2015. (ANI)
