R&B singer Usher rushed to Justin Bieber’s defense Saturday in an Instragram post, saying that his protégé is not racist. He also posted a photo of himself and Bieber.
“As I have watched Justin Bieber navigate difficult waters as a young man, I can tell you that he hasn't always chosen the path of his greatest potential, but he is unequivocally not a racist,” Usher writes.
The statement comes in the wake of controversy that erupted last weekend after video footage surfaced of the 20-year-old pop star repeatedly saying the n-word when he was 15-years-old. Bieber immediately issued his own statement of apology, saying he has learned from his mistakes.
“Thanks to friends and family I learned from my mistakes and grew up and apologized for those wrongs,” he said in the statement. “Now that these mistakes from the past have become public I need to apologize again to all those I have offended.”
Usher said that Bieber was a child who did not under “the negative power and degradation that comes from playing with racial slurs.
“What he is now is a young man faced with an opportunity to become his best self, an example to the millions of kids that follow him to not make the same mistakes,” Usher writes.
Usher is the latest celebrity to rush to Bieber’s defense, including Whoopi Goldberg, Mike Tyson, Young money, Floyd Mayweather and Souljah Boy, the celebrity news site states.
Read more at TMZ.