Amandla Stenberg Makes a Music Video And… Yeah…

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Amandla Stenberg, the star of the new Star Wars show The Acolyte, is striking back at people who don’t like the show – or people “flooding [her] with intolerant racism.” Yesterday, in honor of Juneteenth, Stenberg released a music video online, one she says she made in 72 hours, and it was… strange. It’s being blocked from most users on X now, but you can still see it on Instagram via the post below:

 

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I’m not sure what to extrapolate from “We so bored, don’t fuck wit yo discourse” (direct quote), but I’m sure it’ll be inscribed on the Statue of Liberty any day now. And whatever; I don’t care that she made a music video so she feels better, but there are a few interesting ideas in the song. In particular, I enjoyed how she admitted that the left created the term “woke;” usually, they claim it’s a term the right made up to insult them. And it is, in a way, because the right uses it ironically to mock them, effectively killing its power for them, to the point where they insist things they would define as woke aren’t woke, or shouldn’t be called that. (“You’re not woke!” “No, thank you for noticing.”) But at least Stenberg is honest about it. Calling the use of the term “appropriation” is a bit much, but if cultural appropriation is that important to her, I’m more than happy to refrain from it by not watching her show, the universe of which I’ve been told is no longer for me. (Isn’t that appropriation too?)

She’s also right about the media, though probably not in the way she means. It’s true that the media lies like a fish swims and that people are increasingly tuning it out. But does she really believe they lie to the detriment of the left? That’s pure insanity, or just obfuscating the truth, which is probably what she’s doing; that’s why she keeps the nature of the lies vague. Seriously, after the ridiculous lengths to which the media has gone to protect her show, which everyone else seems to hate (oh, right, it was review bombed, I forgot), she’s got to be crazy to insinuate that. She probably means right-wing media and/or fan-led media, although she doesn’t say that because it would make her musical rant seem whiny.

Ultimately, that’s probably what this is really about. Just like that Ewan McGregor car video and Kathleen Kennedy’s pre-emptive declaration of misogyny from the “male dominated” fan base, they’re framing criticism of The Acolyte as racism and taking advantage of Juneteenth to do it. (Sidebar: I think this is a sign that pride month is losing its luster; or, perhaps, “You don’t want pregnant lesbian witches in Star Wars because you hate gay people” is too much of a stretch even for Disney.) And, while I’m sure there are people on social media pretending this is some monumental point in history, I’d guess most are laughing at this weird video, which is probably why only people who follow Stenberg can see it on X now. At least it’s better than that witch chant on the show, which probably took even less than 72 hours to come up with.