‘Star Wars’ Actress Amandla Stenberg’s ‘White People’ Remark Sparks Fury

Star Wars actress Amandla Stenberg, who starred in a 2019 movie about race relations, is today under fire for saying the goal back then was to make “white people cry.”

The 2018 footage, which has nothing to do with Stenberg’s new role in Disney+ Star Wars TV series The Acolyte, has now resurfaced and is being shared, out of context, by conservative social media accounts, sparking fury.

Stenberg, who identifies as nonbinary, appeared on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah in 2018 as part of her press tour for the movie The Hate U Give.

Interviewing the actress about the film, which follows a young Black woman who turns activist after witnessing her friend being shot by police, Noah asks: “What do you want people to walk away with?” Stenberg replies: “Well, white people crying actually was the goal.”

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“Amandla Stenberg meant white people crying out of EMPATHY was the goal. This empathy is for her movie called “The Hate U Give” which was about police brutality on a Black person. Please watch the full video because this is out of context. It’s upsetting how this has been twisted,” wrote @nostalgicgenius.

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The Acolyte’s show runner has recently come under fire for making the new Star Wars series too diverse and woke.

But Leslye Hedland shutdown that criticism saying those who make such comments were not “true fans” of Star Wars.

“I stand by my empathy for ‘Star Wars’ fans,” she told the New York Times. “But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”