Mega star Justin Bieber took to Instagram on Friday to show his support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Bieber, 23, posted a picture to the social media platform with the words, “Black Lives Matter” along with the caption:

I am a white Canadian and I will never know what it feels like to be an african American but what I do know is I am willing to stand up and use my voice to shine light on racism, because it’s a real thing and it’s more prevalent now than I have ever seen in my lifetime.. we are all Gods children and we are ALL EQUAL

Bieber has been re-branding himself as of late, shying away from his bad boy image and party lifestyle. Recently, Justin has become heavily involved with the Hillsong Church and the church’s star pastor, Carl Lentz. Since becoming involved with the church, Bieber has been eliminating people from his life that he believes to be unhealthy for him, including Floyd Mayweather.

Sources close to the Bieber say that the pop star has been lending support to social issues close to his heart for years now. He reportedly chose to endorse the BLM movement in hopes of raising awareness to the movement’s noble efforts.

Opinions from some members of the African-American community varied in response to Justin Bieber’s sudden and public support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Several users on Twitter voiced support for Bieber’s proclamation, with one user, @21flowerfeast, writing, “Ive been proud of justin bieber MANY times in my life but him posting black lives matter on instagram is another level of proud.”

However, not all responses to the popstar’s post were positive. In the comments section of the Instagram page The Shade Room, some posters expressed skepticism towards Bieber’s words.

“Thanks but what exactly is he planning to do to help this movement? A nice quote is one thing but, what are actually down to do?”  @ktrini84 questioned.

One user even pointed out that Bieber was previously caught on camera using the N-word while telling racist jokes during his teenage years.

“But you didn’t mind making racist jokes, now you wanna stand up for black people, make ya mind up dude,” @ebony.sheree challenged.

The videos of Justin Bieber making the racist jokes first emerged in 2014 but were filmed when he was 15. The singer quickly apologized for telling the jokes after the videos surfaced.

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