Justin Timberlake gives inspirational speech stressing diversity, honoring Muhammad Ali

On Sunday night, Justin Timberlake was the recipient of the Decade Award at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards and during his acceptance speech he talked about being inspired by diversity and Muhammad Ali.

After receiving the award from Kobe Bryant, Timberlake gave a heartfelt speech, saying:

As a former teen, a while ago, who's made a few choices along the way, I'm here to tell you that you and your choices matter. In my case, I grew up in Millington, Tennessee, just outside of Memphis, where I was blessed to be raised by parents and a family who taught me some big lessons. They taught me to respect them. They taught me to respect myself and to respect all people on the basis of their character -- not where they live, not what they did for a living or the color of their skin. My parents did their best to fill my young mind not with prejudice or hate but with compassion and love. I think it's part of the reason why to this day I try to live my life working closely with, making music with and spending so much of my time with an amazing group of people: male, female, straight, gay, every walk of life ... People who help each other and find a common ground. I was drawn to all these people not because they look like me, but because they think and feel like me. The truth is we are all different, but that does not mean we all don't want the same thing.

Timberlake also paid homage to Muhammad Ali, imparting wisdom he took from the boxing champion who passed away in June. Said Timberlake, "I'm here to say you will make mistakes along the way. You will fall down. I have many times. Even Ali did. But what we do after that fall is how we make history because impossible is nothing."

Watch the whole speech below:

Timberlake's speech comes about a month after he stirred up controversy around his response to the BET Awards speech by actor Jesse Williams. After Williams' speech, Timberlake tweeted that he was "inspired" by it.

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Twitter users pointed out the fact that Timberlake has profited immensely off of R&B — a genre with deep roots in the black community — without ever having publicly supported movements for racial equity. 

Timberlake later apologized via Twitter.

This time around, Twitter was also kinder to Timberlake.

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