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Amandla Stenberg condemns anti-woke attacks and intolerable racism because of “The Acolyte”

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Actress Amandla Stenberg responded Wednesday night to a wave of conservative backlash and “intolerable racism” she has endured since starring in the new “Star Wars” series “The Acolyte” – after critics derided the series as “woke” and attacked the 25-year-old actress based on years of interviews.

Key data

Stenberg released a diss track on Instagram addressing critics who attacked her online and bringing her old interviews back out of the spotlight after she caused a stir in recent weeks by joking in an interview for “The Acolyte” that “Star Wars” was “so gay already” – even though she did not mention the series in the rap.

She is referring to a 2018 interview she gave to Trevor Noah that was revived by critics because she said the “goal” of her film “The Hate U Give” was to “make white people cry.” During the interview, she clarified that the film was meant to evoke empathy about the police killing of a black teenager.

Stenberg raps: “I say the goal was to make white people cry. If they could take one thing away, what would it be? I say empathy, ooh, that’s why they mad at me?”

The actress also criticized people who use the word “woke” to describe “anything they feel threatened by,” likely referring to critics who have used the word to criticize “The Acolyte.”

“As far back as I can remember, ‘woke’ was something we created. Speak truth to power and look out for you stupid racists,” Stenberg rapped, pointing to the word’s origins in black communities as a call to be aware of racially motivated threats before it was co-opted by the right as a derogatory slur.

Stenberg rapped that she’s “damn sick of suppressing my anger,” referring to the racism she and her ancestors faced, explaining that she won’t suppress her feelings lest she “be sent to an early grave.”

Key quote

“Happy Juneteenth 🖤 and to those who are flooding me with unbearable racism – since it took me 72 hours on my laptop to make this song and video, you have 72 hours to respond. And I expect a choreography!!,” Stenberg wrote in the caption of her Instagram post.

News Peg

Stenberg stars in “The Acolyte,” a new series in the “Star Wars” franchise that premiered earlier this month and airs new episodes weekly. While the series has been widely praised by critics, with an 84% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it has also drawn criticism from conservative critics who have accused it of pushing LGBTQ issues. The outrage sparked a campaign to bomb the series’ reviews, causing it to have an audience rating of just 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. An interview between Stenberg and series creator Leslye Headland, a queer woman, went viral and drew criticism from anti-“woke” critics after Stenberg joked that “‘Star Wars’ is already so gay” and Headland joked that the robot character R2-D2 might be a lesbian. The third episode, which premiered last week, caused some critics to freak out over its alleged involvement with a “lesbian witch.” This week’s episode sparked debate over a scene in which Stenberg’s character appears to question whether another person’s pronouns are “he” or “she.” However, the writer lashed out at critics on social media, saying the line was “obviously a joke about pronouns” because Stenberg’s character was referring to an animal creature.

Important background

Stenberg, 25, has long been outspoken on political and social issues throughout her acting career. Stenberg has said she identifies as gay and uses both they/her and they/them pronouns. She told The New York Times in 2018 that her role as Rue in the first “Hunger Games” film was her first exposure to online vitriol and racism, and that she was motivated to speak out against racism after the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014. She rose to prominence in 2015 with a video she initially shot for a school project but later posted to her Tumblr account criticizing the cultural appropriation of black hairstyles. She also publicly clashed with Kylie Jenner over her use of the cornrow hairstyle. She has given speeches to several activist organizations, including the Human Rights Campaign, youth empowerment organization WE Charity, and Essence magazine’s Black Women In Hollywood event.

Further information

Makers of “The Acolyte” joke about producing the “gayest” “Star Wars” series and the lesbian R2-D2 – and thereby anger right-wing critics (Forbes)

Fans believe new ‘Acolyte’ episode changes ‘Star Wars’ story as alleged lesbian witch plot goes viral – but others say it makes sense (Forbes)

“The Acolyte” triggers criticism against “Woke” because of the “pronoun” scene – and is reprimanded by the author (Forbes)

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