The Disney Plus series The Acolyte is the latest offering from the Star Wars franchise. And, in the tradition of many Star Wars projects before it, the series has become the subject of backlash and controversy. Now The Acolyte star Amandla Stenberg has stepped forward to say that, while she is open to criticism, she will not tolerate “death threats” and “violent racist language.”
Unfortunately, many valid criticisms are being buried underneath toxic behavior from social media users that would rather attack the show’s cast and crew. Stenberg is now facing such attacks, and as shared in an interview with The View via SFF Gazette, it’s been a “very painful” experience.
Here’s what Amandla Stenberg shared about welcoming criticism but not toxic behavior:
“It’s been very painful to me. It’s not something that I think you can emotionally prepare for,” Stenberg began. “[We] welcome criticism of the show when it comes to storytelling or performance. But when it comes to death threats, horrific, violent racist language, it’s unacceptable to me.”
“And I’ve had to think really deep and hard about when you display discipline and when you display honor. And I guess what I mean by that is when do you decide to utilize discipline to not engage in a reactive way to hatred and when do you decide to engage in honor by honoring your values and your belief system.”
She then discussed some of her feelings based on her responses to the backlash on social media that she’s previously delivered:
“In this case, I decided that was the most important thing to me, to be vocal because I think that silence can send a message as well,” she noted. “And inaction can be very dangerous.”
Her reaction, of course, was a music video.
“And so, well, I dropped a diss track…I dropped a diss track about it…and it’s called ‘Discourse’ and it really is about, of course, what I’ve been experiencing, but it’s also about the divisiveness of the culture and how difficult for all of us now to navigate information in this new era. It’s so difficult to tell what is true, you know, online.”
“These online algorithms they shape our realities and our thinking and clickbait journalism and these algorithms also profit from our rage and our hatred,” Stenberg added. “And I feel like that’s something we are aware of, but we don’t necessarily have enough discourse or infrastructure around because it’s so new.”
Stenberg certainly makes some good points, and while it’s okay for fans to not enjoy The Acolyte, there certainly shouldn’t be death threats or racist insults thrown around because of it. As such, we’ll have to see how the responses to The Acolyte continue with time. Stay tuned to ScreenGeek for any additional Star Wars news, including updates for The Acolyte, as we have them.