For a brief, shining second, there was hope in America. Justin Timberlake issued a tweet praising a speech given at the BET Awards. Someone responded, “Does this mean you’re going to stop appropriating our music and culture?” Timberlake wrote back, “Oh, you sweet soul. The more you realize that we are the same, the more we can have a conversation.”
Thus did the pop star advance something like Americanism. E pluribus unum. Thus did he rise above the identity politics, the Balkanization, that is killing the country.
And then he apologized. Of course. (To read a news story, go here.)
#NationalSuicide — if we’re not careful.
Justin Timberlake, Identity Politics, 'Cultural Appropriation'