Amanda Seales slams Justin Timberlake for not 'arguing with racists', disabling comments on Ahmaud Arbery post
When Justin Timberlake took to Instagram to share a post about Ahmaud Arbery, the black jogger who was chased down by two white men and fatally shot, he turned off his comments. "If you're not outraged, you should be. Justice for #AhmaudArbery," he had shared on his social media handle. And while the post has over 281,302 likes, there is nothing more to it than that.
Amanda Seales has criticized the singer and actor for turning off his comments suggesting that he did so to avoid racist backlash from his followers.
On May 7, Seales took to Instagram to bring attention to white celebrities who had voiced their support for justice for Ahmaud Arbery, a crime that is now considered a hate crime.
"Dedicated to @justintimberlake and the white artists showing 'solidarity' posting about #ahmaudarbery but closing their comments/ IG replies," the 'Insecure' actress captioned her video. "Ain't no half steppin. This is how you ally. You get in the weeds with your fans who are also fans of racist rhetoric. #TURNEMON."
The three-minute video shows her asking white celebrities to engage with people on their social media platforms in order to create awareness about the issue. "This goes out to all those white celebrities. You see I turned off my comments 'cause I got tired of arguing with racists'. But you know what — it's your turn," she said.
"It's time for you to see/Who's been following you. They gonna show ya, show ya true colors/Confederate Karen and her husband, red-faced Ken," the 'The Real' host added.
She added that sharing an image is simply not enough if there is no dialogue on the matter, especially since black celebrities have to deal with racist comments "on the daily" on each of their posts. "Scroll through and tell me what you see/Ha! A whole lot of racists, a whole lot of privilege."
Pointing out to Timberlake, she said, "Saying I don't see color, over and over and over again/It's the bitter smell of strange fruit in the air, yeah yeah yeah," referring to the song 'Strange Fruit'. The song protested lynching in the early 20th century.
She also called out Timberlake and other black celebrities for cultural appropriation and said they did not care enough to create an open dialogue with racist fans. "Talk to 'em. let 'em know, 'You all on some bulls**t out here'/'You buy my album but you not even realizing I'm doing Black music and I'm saying Black things.' Turn 'em on, if you're really about it."
Ahmaud was a 25-year-old unarmed African-American man who was jogging one afternoon in Georgia when he was confronted by two armed men in a pickup truck — Travis McMichael and his father Gregory McMichael. It was Travis who fatally shot Arbery. A video of the shooting was captured by McMichael's neighbor William Bryan, who followed Ahmaud in a second vehicle.
It was only after this video went viral that authorities leaped into action. On May 7, 2020, Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Gregory and Travis on charges of murder and aggravated assault.