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The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg has called out the ‘intolerable racism’ she has faced in recent weeks since starring in Disney Plus’ new Star Wars spin-off.
Stenberg, 25, and the Leslie Headland-created show, which began streaming in May, have been hit with intense backlash from fans, with many claiming it is forcing LGBTQ themes on viewers.
While the show initially received praise from critics and an 84 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, an interview featuring Stenberg and the show creator, which saw the actress say, ‘Star Wars’ is so gay already’, has provoked review bombing on the website.
Now sitting at a 14 per cent rating, reviews have included racist attacks on Stenberg, who stars as twins Verosha ‘Osha’ and Mae-ho ‘Mae’ Aniseya, including resurfacing old interviews of the star.
Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Stenberg addressed the attacks by releasing a diss track and a black-and-white music video calling out the trolls.
She captioned the video, ‘Happy Juneteenth… And to those who are flooding me with intolerable racism – since it took me 72 hours on my laptop to make this song and video, u got 72 hours to respond. and I expect choreo! [sic].’
Amandla plays twins in the show (Picture: Christian Black / Lucasfilm Ltd.)
The multi-talented actress has faced intense racism in recent weeks (Pictures: Lucasfilm Ltd.)
In the song, the star references one particular interview that has resurfaced in which she addressed racism in the US police system and told Trevor Noah that the ‘goal’ of her film, The Hate U Give, was ‘white people crying’.
She says of the 2018 interview, ‘I’m going viral on Twitter again. Open up the news to find some interesting things, 20million views, interview from 2018 with Trevor the king when I was a teen.
‘I was running from city to city to speak on a story, you know the one: police murdering a black boy. My people cried in theatres finding release, white people cried they could see us as human beings. Trevor ask what I want the people to know, I say white people crying was the goal.’
Amandla stood up for herself by posting a diss track on Instagram (Picture: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)
She sang: ‘If they could take one thing what would it be? I say empathy, ooh, that’s why they mad at me?’
Social media users have claimed Stenberg’s 2018 quote is a reference to her involvement in the Star Wars show.
The actress, who first found fame as Rue in The Hunger Games, has never shied away from her political and social just beliefs.
In 2018, during an interview with the New York Times, she said starring in the Suzanne Collins franchise exposed her to racism for the first time and gave her motivation to fight for her rights.
Amandla is no stranger to calling out racism (Picture: Rob Latour/Shutterstock)
During her years in the spotlight, she has spoken in support of multiple organisations that align with her beliefs, including Essence magazine’s Black Women In Hollywood event and went viral on Tumblr for criticising Kylie Jenner’s cornrow hairstyle in 2015.
The star said at the time that the Kardashians star was ‘appropriating black culture’ with her hairstyle and was failing to use her ‘position of power to help black Americans’.
The Acolyte is streaming on Disney Plus now.
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