Justin Bieber is apologizing yet again. The "Confident" singer, 20, found himself in hot water this week, when a video surfaced of a 14-year-old Biebs making racially insensitive comments.
The clip, which was posted by TMZ, shows the moppy-haired teen star singing his 2009 hit single "One Less Lonely Girl," but replacing the word girl with the N-word, as he jokes about killing African-Americans and joining the Ku Klux Klan.
The controversial figure has issued an apology, following the firestorm over his racist song. "Facing my mistakes from years ago has been one of the hardest things I’ve ever dealt with," he said in a statement released to Us. "But I feel now that I need to take responsibility for those mistakes and not let them linger. I just hope that the next 14-year-old kid who doesn’t understand the power of these words does not make the same mistakes I made years ago. At the end of the day I just need to step up and own what I did."
Bieber was noticeably quiet on social media after the video surfaced on Wednesday, June 4. That evening, he simply posted a link to a photo on his Instagram account, which quotes Bible verses.
The pop star's manager, Scooter Braun, added his two cents on Wednesday evening as well. The businessman posted a shot of a quote via Instagram, attributing it to himself. "Some mistakes have no excuses," it reads. "They are just wrong. But how a man reacts to those mistakes… How he owns it and learns from it… That defines him more than the mistake itself. -Scooter."
The offensive footage made its way online just days after another clip was unveiled. The first video showed Bieber using the N-word as well, tossing around the slur as the punchline of a racist joke.
After the first incident, Bieber released a statement apologizing for his actions. "As a kid, I didn't understand the power of certain words and how they can hurt," he said. "I thought it was ok to repeat hurtful words and jokes, but didn't realize at the time that it wasn't funny and that in fact my actions were continuing the ignorance. Thanks to friends and family I learned from my mistakes and grew up and apologized for those wrongs. Now that these mistakes from the past have become public I need to apologize again to all those I have offended. I'm very sorry."
