Amandla Stenberg

thumb|Amandla Stenberg Amandla Stenberg (born 23 October, 1998) is an American actress and musician. Quotes The line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange is always going to be blurry Everything you need to know about Amandla Stenberg: Star of this summer's ‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ 30 April, 2024 I think already, at age 12, I was like, Yeah, people are racist. Why are y’all surprised? When I reflect on it, I don’t remember being very upset about it. I remember feeling that I don’t give a flying f**k what these racist people think of me. I think bigots don’t really bother me A lot of my adolescence was defined by being here. I feel like the first time I really experienced freedom and autonomy was here, so I think I probably fell in love with New York and knew it was the place I wanted to live when I was 15 or 16. Then I had a series of unsuccessful attempts to move here that were thwarted by different things It wasn’t until I started living in other places that I realized that growing up with the backdrop of a mountainscape is not everyone’s experience Social media really shaped me and my generation and our ability to organize or express our thoughts I have always had and continue to have a lot of disillusionment around social media, particularly now feel really disheartened by the fact that there’s no infrastructure legislation to control and mitigate the amount of manipulation that is occurring toward the public by these private organizations and corporations who just want to make money off us and control our thoughts. I don’t think there’s ever been a moment where I’ve thought social media is not for me, because I’m obsessed with social media. I have three meme accounts! MEET AMANDLA STENBERG, STAR WARS’ NEW HOPE n.d I think that as a black girl you grow up internalizing all these messages that say you shouldn’t accept your hair or your skin tone or your natural features, or that you shouldn’t have a voice, or that you aren’t smart I feel like the only way to fight that is to just be yourself on the most genuine level and to connect with other black girls who are awakening and realizing that they’ve been trying to conform when people come to me and say, “I’m more comfortable in my identity because of you,” or “I feel like you’ve given me a voice,” that’s the most powerful thing ever. But I’m not tired of talking about hair in the sense of it being an empowering thing. I know when I used to chemically straighten mine, I did it because I wasn’t comfortable with my natural hair. I thought it was too poofy, too kinky. So for me, personally, when I started wearing it natural, it felt like I was blossoming because I was letting go of all the dead hair and all the parts of me that had rejected my natural state. I often find myself in situations where I am the token black person Now you can go on Instagram and you can see a girl who looks like you who is killing the game and expressing herself. Just being able to see that is so affirming I don’t particularly like putting forward an image of myself that’s too true to reality Being an actor is one of the few professions where, as an adult, you get to play! I’m not sure if social-media activism serves the cause in the long term Though the intentions are generally excellent with respect to giving a voice to those who were too long silenced, the movements that came before us, in the past, perhaps had more weight you might say that culture has become more inclusive, that inequalities and prejudice seem to be slowly retreating, and that things which were once considered normal and acceptable are now deemed to be inappropriate our collective relationship to the truth has become far more chaotic.” Interview with actress Amandla Stenberg, star of Hunger Games and jewelry ambassador for Chanel 28 November, 2023 I think as a queer person, kind of everything I do in the public sphere is drag in some capacity We have a unique voice because we grow up with the ability to empathize. We constantly have to do the work of placing ourselves in other people’s shoes Amandla Stenberg: 'I Want to Express Myself as Authentically as I Can.' 15 October, 2018 I noticed that whenever I was trying to talk about social justice and how Black women are framed in the media, quite ironically, I would be framed in a certain way that would demonize me and take away the value of my point Whenever Black women have a point, they’re characterized as Angry Black Women, and therefore the thing they’re talking about is no longer of importance because they have to deal with them being overly emotional or something. I recognize that people who respond negatively to what I have to say aren’t at a place yet where they are able to learn I feel like when I was younger—even though I may not have been conscious [of it]—I fought my hair and I fought who I was…to try to conform, or shy away from my Blackness Now that I’m growing older, I find that my source of power comes from my identity and ethnicity Now that I’m growing older, I find that my source of power comes from my identity and ethnicity Amandla Stenberg: Changing The Conversation 27 October, 2020 I thought a lot about the concept of cultural dysphoria, and how that can shape how people relate to the world, Amandla Stenberg Star Wars: The Acolyte Interview: "I Feel Responsibility" 31 May, 2024 External links Category:Actresses from Los Angeles Category:1998 births Category:Women born in the 1990s Category:Living people Category:LGBT people Category:African Americans Category:Singers from the United States Category:Women singers