‘The Acolyte’s Amandla Stenberg Releases New Song In Response To “Anti-Woke” Hate

Amandla Stenberg just had the ultimate clapback to haters of their new show, The Acolyte. 

Stenberg, who uses she/they pronouns, took to Instagram with a song and music video titled “Discourse” to address the backlash she has faced from racist trolls.

“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!!” Stenberg posted.

Stenberg’s song begins with a reference to her 2018 interview with Trevor Noah, in which she discussed her role in The Hate U Give, saying, “White people crying actually was the goal” of the movie. This quote has recently been taken out of context in conservative circles to seemingly represent The Acolyte. 

Stenberg also received backlash from “anti-woke” conservative groups after a scene in a recent episode of The Acolyte depicted a character appearing to ask another about their pronouns. 

“Is he, or they, with us?” Stenberg’s character asks in the episode, referring to Bazil, a small rodent-like animal creature.

The clips of the episode going viral online are short and fail to include a shot of Bazil — misrepresenting what was actually happening in the scene — much in the same way Stenberg’s 2018 interview is being taken out of context. 

In the song posted to her Instagram account yesterday, Stenberg sings, “I’m going viral on Twitter again, open up the news to find some interesting things. 20 million views in an interview from 2018, with Trevor the king, when I was a teen.”

Stenberg continues, “I was running from city to city to speak on a story, you know the one, police murdering a black boy. My people cried in the theaters finding release, white people cried they could see us as human beings. Trevor asked what I want the people to know, I say white people crying was the goal. If they could take one thing what would it be? I say empathy, ooh that’s why they mad at me.”

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Stenberg goes on to call out the groups who have been editing footage of her Daily Show interview to make it look recent. 

“They splice lines, make hate they recognize, make it look like the same propaganda they spew cuz 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 upon misinformation, then that tells me you afraid of the truth.”

Stenberg also had a message for the conservative groups who weaponize the word “woke,” a Millennial/Gen-Z term originating from Black activists, meaning alertness to racial prejudice and discrimination.

“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.”

Stenberg didn’t miss the opportunity to call out the media in the track.

“Journalists I’m looking at you, did you forget it’s your job to provide the truth?” Stenberg asks. “Spreading divisiveness mining the metrics and data, seems you gave up all your ethics for money and views.”