Sam Smith Defends Himself Against Twitter Backlash, Says It's ''Ridiculous'' to Be ''Racist in 2016'

Sam Smith is defending his social media rant earlier this week where he vented his frustrations over a friend was "verbally abused racially in London."
Yesterday, the Grammy winner posted the following series of messages on Twitter, which caused an onslaught of criticism:

"Just experienced my friend getting verbally abused racially in London. I am absolutely SPEECHLESS. I never ever ever ever thought that would happen here. Absolutely speechless and hurt."
He continued, "I feel like I have to shine some sort of light on it. The police were so unhelpful in the situation and its deeply shocked me."

Just hours ago, Smith shared an Instagram to fans to clear the air about his intentions for talking about the incident on Twitter.

"For the record, I was merely sharing an experience I had in the hope it would draw attention to how ridiculous it is to be racist in 2016. This is not about me in any way. It's about a deep rooted issue we have on our society that should now be extinct," he wrote.

"I don't profess to know or remotely understand what it means to be on the receiving end of racist abuse, but having been bullied my whole life for being gay, what I do know is that it is wrong and completely unacceptable. Here's to people being allowed to be people."