Bernice King shared support for Justin Bieber amidst backlash to his new album Justice, which features clips from her father, Martin Luther King Jr.‘s speeches. Rather than criticizing him for the controversial audio, Bernice focused on Justin’s announcement that the would be “supporting organizations that embody what justice looks like in action,” including The King Center. Bernice, the center’s CEO, praised Justin for his pledge.
Each of us, including artists and entertainers, can do something.
Thank you, @justinbieber, for your support, in honor of #Justice, of @TheKingCenter’s work and of our #BeLove campaign, which is a part of our global movement for justice. #MLK #EndRacism https://t.co/nTkR1XdcvW
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) March 18, 2021
“Each of us, including artists and entertainers, can do something,” Bernice tweeted on March 18. “Thank you, @justinbieber, for your support, in honor of #Justice, of
@TheKingCenter’s work and of our #BeLove campaign, which is a part of our global movement for justice. #MLK #EndRacism.”
Justice, Justin’s sixth studio album, begins with audio of Martin Luther King Jr. saying, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” It’s followed by a nearly two-minute track called “MLK Interlude.” Some fans found the inclusion of MLK’s speeches puzzling, considering the rest of the album has nothing to do with it. Justin includes the singles “Holy,” “Hold On,” and “Lonely,” as well as plenty of odes to wife Hailey Baldwin.
As fans know, “Holy” is all about Hailey. But the album is filled with more tracks about his wife of two-plus years. “Unstable” is about a time in Justin’s life that he felt, well, unstable, and tried to “scare” Hailey away. But she didn’t go. “Sometimes I think I overthink / And I start to feel anxiety / There were times I couldn’t even breathe / But you never once abandoned me,” he sings on The Kid LAROI collaboration.
“For me it’s a really emotional song because I was in a really, really bad place maybe a year ago,” he told The Sun. “Fortunately my wife was just there for me through it all and so the whole message of the song is ‘You loved me when I was unstable.’”