American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake, born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, is the most recent celebrity who stood up against evicting confederate monuments in the U.S.
On Monday (July 6), Timberlake took on Instagram sharing his own opinion about the matter, starting with, “A lot of you know I’m from Tennessee … a state that happens to be the home of many many confederate monuments.”
According to HollywoodLife, Tennessee have numerous statues that has “racism” backgrounds” in tribute to Confederate leaders from the past.
Timberlake’s Instagram post includes a video from the ACLU Legal Director Jeffrey Robinson pointing out the remaining 1,296 confederate monuments erecting across 10 states in the south: monuments with dark stories of killing over 4,000 Americans in 1877 to 1950.
Timberlake, 39, demands the support of the whole country in removing those statues because men who “proudly” commemorated with those statues are not worth it, considering the oppression they caused to the Black community.
With the removal of the confederate statues, as per Timberlake, is a symbol of great respect for the Black community in America and is an actual step towards progress attaining equality for all. “…these monuments must come down,” he said.
The “Mirrors” singer’s Instagram post has now over 1 million likes with a handful comments, both supporting and negatively criticizing the singer. The post concludes with Timberlake tagging the ACLU (@aclu_nationwide) Instagram profile with the hashtag #JeffreyRobinson. The singer-actor also urged everyone to follow the ACLU profile and learn more about their movement; which is fighting in removing down confederate statues.
View this post on Instagram
‘Confederate Statues’
As per Variety, the issue of removing confederate statues across the US has been circling around each state’s administration. The said issue was first tackled in 2017 during a terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia. And according to the release detail of Quinnipiac Poll, only 44% opposed in removing those statues with 52% of the people who voted are in favor. However, there was a sudden change of figures to the second poll conducted in August of 2017: 50% opposed and 39% were in favor.
Meanwhile, debates in removing confederate monuments across U.S. is a hot topic to many states which led for the said issue to be renewed in the recent weeks, CNN reported. Fortunately, more cities and states have opted in removing those statues but critics rain them with criticisms claiming an erasure of history if those monuments will be removed.
Aside from Timberlake, singer-songwriter Taylor Swift also stood up in removing confederate statues last month, saying those statues is making her sick. Also from Tennessee, Swift urged the Capitol Commission and Tennessee Historical Commission to remove those monuments.
However, celebrities like Kerry Washington and Yara Shahidi inveigh against the said issue.