Racist trolls intent on attacking Disney+’s The Acolyte for no reason have now begun twisting Amandla Stenberg’s 5-year-old comments to try to promote a false narrative about the show.
The Acolyte is the latest live-action Star Wars show and dives into the High Republic era, introducing viewers to a whole new slate of Jedi, including Osha Aniseya (Stenberg). A mechanic and ex-Jedi Padawan, Osha gets pulled back into the Jedi Order when she learns her twin sister, Mae, long believed to be dead, is still alive and on a mission to murder four Jedi masters. She and her former master, along with a Jedi padawan and knight, set out to find her sister and answers regarding her training and why she wants revenge on the Jedi Order.
So far, The Acolyte has received stellar critic reviews for its refreshing take on a lesser-known time period and deep dive into Star Wars lore with a cast of strong and intriguing characters. Unfortunately, while real Star Wars fans are attempting to enjoy the series, a small group of vocal sexist and racist fanboys have arisen to attack The Acolyte. Although they’ve never seen the show, they got wind that it was a female-led series with a Black lead actress and a transgender star and immediately began review-bombing it and raising hysteria that the franchise is “woke.” In their desperation to prove that the fictional TV show is somehow hurting them, the trolls have begun digging through Stenberg’s past interviews to try to find out-of-context quotes to use against her and The Acolyte.
Racist trolls cry over Amandla Stenberg’s 5-year-old comment
Fans of Stenberg know that The Acolyte is only her most recent project. She also starred in The Hunger Games and the powerful film adaptation of The Hate U Give. As a result, racist trolls began combing through years-old interviews, desperate to cherry-pick some of her comments that could be seen as controversial if taken out of context. Soon, the account End Wokeness posted a clip of Stenberg on The Daily Show. In the 18-second clip, she talks about the goal of one of her projects. She states, “White people crying actually was the goal.” The comment is interrupted by Trevor Noah’s and the audience’s laughter, but Stenberg goes on to explain that she means she wants the audience to cry because they feel empathy for the story at hand.
Of course, End Wokeness started spreading the lie that Stenberg said the point of The Acolyte is to make white people cry. In reality, the interview was conducted five years ago. It’s painfully obvious it’s not recent because Noah hasn’t been the host of The Daily Show since 2022. The interview was about The Hate U Give, which, understandably, sought to stir empathy in white viewers by demonstrating the reality of police brutality.
Still, countless other racist accounts have continued spreading the clip and insisting that The Acolyte needs to be boycotted because of its secret scheme to traumatize and induce weeping in all the white folk. Fortunately, many users quickly began pointing out what the racist trolls were doing and condemning their attempt to wildly twist a years-old comment to fit their agenda.
It was like deja vu watching the whole situation play out on social media, as this isn’t the first time bigoted trolls have pulled this stunt. Recently, right-wing pundit Matt Walsh managed to dig up an eight-year-old clip of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy in which she discussed how her works, such as her Academy Award-winning documentary on acid attacks on women in Pakistan, were meant to make men uncomfortable. Walsh falsely claimed that she made the comment in relation to her upcoming Star Wars movie, and every middle-aged manbaby promptly began to cry because her supposed desire to make them uncomfortable through Star Wars made them uncomfortable.
However, if The Acolyte and Obaid-Chinoy’s far-off Star Wars movie are genuinely as awful as all the bigots claim, why exactly do they feel the need to devote hours of their time to finding a single sentence out of hundreds of interviews that can be taken out of context to “prove” their point? It’s almost comical the pathetic lengths they will go toin order to push their biased opinion on a project they know so little about that they can’t even form one original sentence about it.
Also, even if The Acolyte and Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars movie were made to make men and white individuals feel empathy for marginalized people, why object? If the mere thought of being made to feel empathy for the people they hate scares white men so much, it’s quite clear that we do need more movies and TV shows that do this.
