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“Go-to” civil rights Black leader Rev. Al Sharpton (pictured) has decided to weigh in on the negative controversy swirling around pop star Justin Bieber (pictured) and the latest racist video he made five years ago that surfaced Wednesday. On the clip, the boy blunder uses the N-word repeatedly and jokes about joining the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) to the tune of his smash hit “One Less Lonely Girl.” according to TMZ.

Sharpton, who has crusaded against the continual use of profanity and the N-word in particularly the hip-hop community, described “Biebergate” as “troubling.” According to the Rev. Sharpton, Bieber’s decision to use the N-word to describe Black people should be a teachable moment for him.  Sharpton goes on to tell TMZ that the resurfacing of Bieber’s videos is just a reminder that “none of us can use the N-word.  Many of us have, me included when we were younger. We’ve got to stop this!  And you give people a level of feeling something is funny that is not funny.  People that don’t intend, offend.”

As for whether Bieber be held accountable for the racially offensive material, Rev. Sharpton said, “I think that he should use this to say to people…like I’ve had to say and others in life, ‘Hey, this is why we got to stop doing [this] ’cause the danger is that you offend people, and even if my friends think it’s alright, it’s not alright.'”

 

Bieber, who owes his career to crooner Usher, reportedly starred in the video right around the time he actually signed on with Scooter Braun and Raymond.  Ironically, “One Less Lonely Girl” was actually written by Usher for Bieber.

 

The 20-year-old performer, who released a statement on June 1, apologizing for his verbal faux pas and how the latest video was a “reckless and immature mistake,” also starred in a previous clip where he is seen at age 14, telling an offensive, racist joke.