Amandla Stenberg, Star Of "The Acolyte," Is Challenging The "Intolerable Racism" In The "Star Wars" Fandom, And These Are The Words I Was Looking For
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Amandla Stenberg has no time for the haters, so pop off on social media at your discretion.
Amandla is the star of The Acolyte, the latest Star Wars spin-off on Disney+, and it didn't take long for so-called superfans of the franchise to take to social media to express their disdain for the new series.
It's no mystery of the galaxy that certain fandoms, like Star Wars fans, tend to go too hard for their favorite fictional universe. As someone who collected Star Wars action figures since he was 6 years old and has seen every Star Wars major motion picture on opening night since The Phantom Menace (1999), I can understand the attachment and passion for the world filled with colorful aliens, Jedi, Sith, and bounty hunters.
But there's a difference between being disappointed that years of Star Wars legends were retconned to make way for new stories versus outright bullying actors and hating characters for their appearance and identity.
Amandla is a gay, nonbinary actor who uses she/they pronouns and portrays the main character of the new series. Before the show aired, it felt like the character was met with immediate backlash, even though their identity had nothing to do with the character in the series. And despite bigots' attempts to say their criticisms aren't anti-BIPOC or anti-LGBTQ+, the discourse felt oddly familiar with past scenarios.
In 2022, Moses Ingram received racist comments on social media from fans who disliked her casting as the main villain in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In 2017, Kelly Marie Tran's character from Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker also received online hate, which led to her departure from social media.
In the same films, John Boyega's character was also met with backlash. John said he felt his character was also sidelined. "You get yourself involved in projects, and you're not necessarily going to like everything," John said in a GQ interview. "[But] what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a Black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It's not good. I'll say it straight up."
"You knew what to do with these other people, but when it came to Kelly Marie Tran, when it came to John Boyega, you know fuck all."
Even though it predates social media, I vividly remember how uncomfortable I felt in 1999 when people expressed their hatred for Jar Jar Binks from The Phantom Menace, to the point that actor Ahmed Best even received death threats over his performance.
In my opinion, it's becoming more offensive to call out racism and anti-LGBTQ hate than actually to be racist or anti-LGBTQ, and the rhetoric and recent discourse around The Acolyte is evidence of that. But Amandla is standing on business and calling out the bigotry anyway.
On June 19, aka Juneteenth, Amandla posted a video on Instagram addressing all the intolerance and hate they experienced, and I'm entirely on board.
The caption read, "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!!"
In the song "Discourse," Amandla referenced a viral 2018 interview with Trevor Noah. In the interview, they said that "white people crying" and expressing empathy was a goal of The Hate U Give, a film adaptation of a book about the aftermath of a Black teenager's murder by a police officer.
"They splice lines, make hate they recognize, make it look like the same propaganda they spew cuz they conflate our pain with violence and try to weaponize everything that we do," Amandla recited. "The desperation of oppressors is rising and now they holding onto any ol thing they can use. If you reply on misinformation, then that tells me you afraid of the truth."
Amandla's interview quote, taken out of context, has been used as an attempt to justify hate toward Amandla and Disney for intentionally including BIPOC and LGBTQ storylines to upset fans who think the franchise is becoming oversaturated with BIPOC and LGBTQ characters. If only there were a word to describe people who hate the inclusion of BIPOC and LGBTQ representation.
Amandla also spoke to people who have attempted to redefine the word "woke" into a negative and derogatory term.
"They spinning WOKE, bastardize it and appropriate it," Amandla sang. "Last I recall, WOKE was something we created. Speak truth to power. Keep an eye out for you silly racists and now they use it to describe anything they threatened by."
"It was all about the people recognizing bigotry," Amandla continued. "The power of community, not fodder for your clickbait."
Are we surprised that Amandla is sick of people being upset over their portrayal of fictional characters by fandoms that don't know how to keep their bigotry to themselves? Do you all remember The Hunger Games?
Many so-called Star Wars fans have criticized the franchise for force-pushing diversity on them by including new characters that don't typically look like the actors who starred in the films back when people of color were barely getting used to having civil rights in the United States.
Perhaps they prefer a time when the only people of "color" in the franchise were Lando Calrissian, a brown Chewbacca, a gold C-3PO, and James Earl Jones's voice.
Or maybe they prefer a time when the only women in the franchise were Princess Leia, Mon Mothma (for a couple of seconds), and Oola, who Jabba fed to his pet rancor when she resisted gross advances.
Now, Star Wars has expanded the universe to include characters played by actors like Oscar Isaac, Pedro Pascal, Diego Luna, Rosario Dawson, Ming-Na Wen, and Natasha Liu Bordizzo.
Jonathan Olley / ©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection, / ©Disney+/Courtesy Everett Collection, Lucasfilm Ltd., Walt Disney Co. / ©Walt Disney Co./courtesy Everett / Everett Collection
The Acolyte, the newest installment in the franchise, includes Lee Jung-jae, Manny Jacinto, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, and other actors alongside Amandla.
As a kid, I'll never forget how amazing it felt to see heroes like Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) and Captain Panaka (Hugh Quarshie) on screen. These characters gave a young Star Wars fan hope that people of color (who are not green) also belonged in the galaxy far, far away. So, the advancement of inclusion in today's TV and movies is commendable, especially in the face of the constant backlash from a particular sect of the fandom.
But, to be honest, the hate of the angry, critical, and jaded Star Wars fans is not always rooted in racism and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. Some fans bullied every young and older version of Anakin Skywalker into obscurity. The prequel trilogy underwhelmed them. The sequel trilogy disappointed them.
Lucasfilm / Everett Collection, 20thcentfox / ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection
And all the spin-off shows, save a few episodes of The Mandalorian, Andor, and the animated The Clone Wars, pissed them off.
They just be mad about everything.
I'm not knocking folks for being critical of their favorite franchises because I understand how deeply a person can connect with the material. However, when that criticism is solely based on the dislike for characters' appearances and the actors that portray them — I hope a million more music videos like Amandla's call you out for what you are. (Insert word for "a person who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.")
Thank you, Amandla and the other actors, for bringing new representation to the galaxy far, far away. Some Star Wars fans appreciate it, and the ones who hate it can fall into a Sarlacc's mouth.
