Amandla Stenberg from ‘The Acolyte‘ has more talents than acting. She is quite an achieved singer, and is channeling her musical talents to confront and challenge racism and bigotry. The ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’ star, is a black, non-binary person, who uses she/they pronouns.
Being a conventional outcast, she is using her music to speak up against the discrimination she has faced because of her color. Stenberg has released a new song titled ‘Discourse‘ that addresses the wave of online hate she has encountered as the lead in the ‘Star Wars‘ series ‘The Acolyte‘. Here’s all about it.
Amandla Stenberg Writes A Powerful Song In Response To Racist Critics
‘The Acolyte‘ has faced some unexpected criticism online from homophobic and racist critics slamming the show for putting Amandla Stenberg — a black, queer person — in the lead role. She has also faced similar criticism in the past, which has also been addressed in the song. Stenberg’s song is basically the most gracious yet stinging response to the critics.
In her song titled ‘Discourse‘, she has addressed the unfair criticism and given a fitting response to it. The song’s refrain, “We so bored, don’t f— wit yo discourse,” is expressive of Stenberg’s disdain for the hateful comments about her.
The song begins by giving a reference to a viral 2018 interview with Trevor Noah about their film ‘The Hate U Give‘, which had sparked attention from bad-faith critics. In the film, Stenberg’s character deals with the aftermath of a Black teenager’s murder by a police officer.
She criticizes how these critics take her statements out of context to frame her as racist. “They splice lines, make hate they recognize, make it look like the same propaganda that they spew/ Cuz they conflate our pain with violence and try to weaponize everything that we do,” she sings.
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Amandla Stenberg Slams Critics For “Bastardizing” The Term “Woke”
Amandla Stenberg further calls out right-wing pundits and racists in her song for distorting the term “woke” to undermine progressive ideas. “They spinning WOKE, bastardize it and appropriate it/Last I recall, WOKE was something we created, speak truth to power, keep an eye out for you silly racists,” she sings.
She also references Childish Gambino’s 2016 hit ‘Redbone’, which helped popularize the phrase “stay woke.” Going forward, she criticizes the media for amplifying the bigoted backlash against her. “Journalists I’m looking at you/ Did you forget it’s your job to provide the truth? Spreading divisiveness mining the metrics and data, seems you gave up all your ethics for money and views,” the star sings.
Stenberg has posted the song along with a self-directed music video on Instagram, captioning it, “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!!”
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