Amandla Stenberg releases song in response to ‘intolerable racism’
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The actress premiered the song on her Instagram account Wednesday in commemoration of Juneteenth.
Amandla Stenberg is addressing racist trolls in a new song.
The actress, who is currently starring in the “Star Wars” series, “The Acolyte,” released a song titled “Discourse,” which addresses the “intolerable racism” she has experienced. The 25-year-old premiered the song on her Instagram Wednesday in commemoration of Juneteenth.
“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!!” she wrote alongside a music video of the song.
In the video, Stenberg is shown in a black bandeau crop top and jean shorts with her natural afro out in all its glory. The camera zooms in on her before she begins dancing and singing.
“Discourse” begins with a reference to a 2018 interview with Trevor Noah in which Stenberg said “white people crying actually was the goal” of “The Hate U Give,” a film she starred in that follows the police killing of a Black child.
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“They splice lines, make hate they recognize, make it look like the same propaganda they spew ’cause they conflate our pain with violence and try to weaponize everything that we do,” Stenberg sings. “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.”
She also called out right-wing media’s use of the word “woke,” turning what was once a positive Black phrase into something wrong and negative.
“They spinning woke, bastardize it and appropriate it,” Stenberg sings. “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.”
She goes on to sing about Childish Gambino’s lyric “stay woke” in the 2016 song “Redbone,” singing that the phrase was “all about the people recognizing bigotry.”
“The power of community,” Stenberg croons, “not fodder for your clickbait.”
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