Letitia Wright (Shuri) links to anti-vax video on Twitter [UPDATE: She has deleted her Twitter account]

[Deleted member 33533]

As uncomfortable as it is a lot of black people are in the mind that any vaccine could be a setup or a way to mark us with the number of the beast etc

And lets be very fucking honest here black people have a natural and hard-learned built-in skepticism to anything their governments are suggesting as much as it sucks.

Even my family has been on this wave for months posting videos and commenting on what a vaccine could be bringing in.

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Yeah, I know anti-vax talk especially from a celebrity with some influence is dangerous but I think there's a nuance here a lot of posters don't realize. There is a lot of skepticism and mistrust of this sort of thing baked in to the black community from experience, I have some of that in my family as well. Does anyone here know about the Tuskegee Experiments?

I don't know if we should just be beating down on Letitia and people who say this without looking at those deeper contexts. And it's difficult because it doesn't just stop at anti-vax, it creeps into bigotry and conspiracy theories - obviously these things must be condemned. I don't know the right way to really go about fixing this or even addressing it. Once again it's another example of the US government failing its black citizens.

 

[Deleted member 86105]

(Ultimately, her best course of action is to delete the tweets, seek out trusted sources and advisors, and to delete the whole app for a couple weeks. Maybe even do a full purge.)

I do like discussing the topics celebrities bring up when they post crap, but some people are just legitimately misinformed and don't deserve all the energy the Internet collectively projects on to them.

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Now this I agree with. If you truly have weird, outlandish views, don't conflate that with your position of influence.

You have to be tremendously careful with what you post. Social media invites mass amounts of toxicity, especially when you share views that directly hurt people just because they're different from you.

The best thing she could do is just leave Twitter altogether. I advocate that for celebrities in general tbh. It's just not worth it.

 

[Altairre]

Her intention wasn't to hurt but apparently the stuff she shared also has transphobic rhetoric? Not giving her video a click.

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It's the combination of anti-vax, transphobia and earlier tweets around some "antichrist agenda" shortly after Biden won that makes the whole thing look more than iffy.

 

[abellwillring]

I'm confused as to why she's liking some of these tweets.

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Probably to make it more difficult to find the tweets that she liked previously. It also sets up a further defense of her being open-minded and "just asking questions" if she's liking things positive and critical of her.

 

[Garlador]

I mean, if you discount the transphobia and anti-vax part of the videos, there's... still almost zero substantial information there.

I try not to put any celebrity on a pedestal, but I know a lot of young girls who look up to her. Be a better role model.

 

[Starshine]

no need to be hasty and call for a recast. just have her entire story line be about her getting people vaccinated in the next black panther movie

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Death by a Thousand Vaccines?!

I like it! :)

 

[Smokeymicpot]

Are you trolling? It feels like you're trolling at this point.

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What part? The whole Disney should just stop letting their actors/actress tweet, Disney being a shit company like most others, or the fact we should stop caring what actors say? Most of them will take back their statements cause the PR team will do so. Say a generic statement like they will lean. Which we can believe if we want to.

 

[Kyuuji]

What part? The whole Disney should just stop letting their actors/actress tweet, Disney being a shit company like most others, or the fact we should stop caring what actors say? Most of them will take back their statements cause the PR team will do so. Say a generic statement like they will lean. Which we can believe if we want to.

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The complete missing of the point I and others were making about why people do care when famous people use their platform to broadcast bigotry.

 

[WrenchNinja]

Yeah, I know anti-vax talk especially from a celebrity with some influence is dangerous but I think there's a nuance here a lot of posters don't realize. There is a lot of skepticism and mistrust of this sort of thing baked in to the black community from experience, I have some of that in my family as well. Does anyone here know about the Tuskegee Experiments?

I don't know if we should just be beating down on Letitia and people who say this without looking at those deeper contexts. And it's difficult because it doesn't just stop at anti-vax, it creeps into bigotry and conspiracy theories - obviously these things must be condemned. I don't know the right way to really go about fixing this or even addressing it. Once again it's another example of the US government failing its black citizens.

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Except she's not JAQing off cause of that history (which would still be irrational anyway with the reality of these specific vaccines)

She's doing it cause she's a religious nut

 

[Sesha]

Shuri died on the way back to her home planet.

 

[Wazzy]

Found out she was a religious nut a few months ago so this doesn't surprise me but still disappointed by her being so awful.

I would have to look again and maybe it's already been posted but I remembered seeing that she was liking gay conversion therapy tweets though the date she liked them I can't remember and it wasn't recent IIRC.

I hope Lupita gets the BP mantle now.

Edit: looks like those tweets she liked got deleted and I don't remember exactly what they said. They were posted by someone who promotes conversion therapy(claims to previously be a lesbian but now straight) and I can't remember if she was just liking religious promotion or if the tweet mentioned the conversion.

 

[Crimsonskies]

She basiclly just ruined her entire career with this transphobia, antivaxxing and promoting conversion therapy I mean YIKES.

Oh well I am just waiting for her inevitable pragerU interview with Candance Owens discussing how evil Hollywood is and how the left ruins anything.

You know that's coming next

 

[night814]

I really don't think folks realize how pervasive anti-institutional and skeptical thought is in minority communities. Most people aren't as loud with it as some celebrities, but still.

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You tube also makes falling in a hole with only conspiracy bullshit way too easy. Like one video and that's ALL you're gonna see anymore

 

[Professor Beef]

to the people saying to ignore her, etc

when was the last time ignoring a problem made it go away?

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Shuri died on the way back to her home planet.

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Shuri fell in the final stand against Thanos.

Her sacrifice was not in vain.

 

[Kard8p3]

to the people saying to ignore her, etc

when was the last time ignoring a problem made it go away?

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The people saying that are dumb and do not do that.

 

[Cuburger]

I was hoping the anti-vax stuff was maybe an ignorant one-off opinion, but I did not expect to see Letitia's Twitter opinions go into such problematic territory when opening this thread. Disappointing.

 

[TheZynster]

Well that's extremely disappointing, she's one of my favorite actresses.

 

[Flex1212]

Well damn - I guess M'Baku needs to step it up.

 

[Anaron]

Known she was an unfortunate dumbass for awhile now. :(

 

[Syriel]

to the people saying to ignore her, etc

when was the last time ignoring a problem made it go away?

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Ignoring idiots sometimes works. It worked with Milo.

 

[Gravity Insanity]

 

[Lifejumper]

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Like clockwork.

 

[HiLife]

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"ignore it guys"

 

[Pai Pai Master]

what happened to just doing research on your own about things instead of making it a big deal for yourself on social media

it's fine to be lacking understanding of an issue and educating yourself on it

randomly throwing out links to conspiracy bullshit and calling it "just asking questions" is such a shit thing to do when you have a large following

 

[Dreams-Visions]

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[BringBackSonics]

Damn...

 

[Deleted member 33533]

Except she's not JAQing off cause of that history (which would still be irrational anyway with the reality of these specific vaccines)

She's doing it cause she's a religious nut

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I think it can very much be a matter of both. It can be a nuanced issue. It also doesn't matter if you think it's irrational - history doesn't care about that. Unfortunately, you can't undo the damage of years and years of government and medical mistreatment of Black people by telling them they're being irrational.

And you know, yeah I think she's a religious nut too but I'm not defending Letitia, I think what she's saying is ridiculous and dangerous, especially considering her station. My post wasn't really about her as an individual, I was just trying to make a broader point about anti-vax and just medical distrust in the black community and where it comes from because I've noticed people not seem to acknowledge that at all. When the Covid vaccines become available I know there will be black people who don't trust it and I don't want people here to just dismiss all the reasons why and just loop them in with your typical crazy anti-vaxxers.

 

[Imperial Bishop]

Letitia right now:

 

[SolidSnakex]

Any bigger sources?

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While that tweet is obviously sarcasm, I think you're going to see this vaccine exposing some anti-vaxxers in entertainment. Because once it's available i'd expect every movie/TV set and every sport to require those participating to have take it. Gonna be interesting to see what happens to someone like Djokovic in tennis who's a known anti-vaxxer.

 

[Eeyore]

I think it can very much be a matter of both. It can be a nuanced issue. It also doesn't matter if you think it's irrational - history doesn't care about that. Unfortunately, you can't undo the damage of years and years of government and medical mistreatment of Black people by telling them they're being irrational.

And you know, yeah I think she's a religious nut too but I'm not defending Letitia, I think what she's saying is ridiculous and dangerous, especially considering her station. My post wasn't really about her as an individual, I was just trying to make a broader point about anti-vax and just medical distrust in the black community and where it comes from because I've noticed people not seem to acknowledge that at all. When the Covid vaccines become available I know there will be black people who don't trust it and I don't want people here to just dismiss all the reasons why and just loop them in with your typical crazy anti-vaxxers.

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It's pretty easy to be like "hey black folks have been mistreated and there should be a healthy skepticism because of experiments done on them in the past" vs. sharing a video where one of the premises that is used against vaccination is "there's an enzyme named after lucifer". If you want to give her the benefit of the doubt, that's up to you, but if she actually was skeptical because of the former and not the latter wouldn't she say so? I know I would. Religious indoctrination is really tough to overcome, but really sad thing is, the foundation of many religions is tolerance and love and yet the only thing some religious folks pay attention to is the intolerance. Why come up with so many reasons to discount and "other" other people.

 

[WrenchNinja]

I think it can very much be a matter of both. It can be a nuanced issue. It also doesn't matter if you think it's irrational - history doesn't care about that. Unfortunately, you can't undo the damage of years and years of government and medical mistreatment of Black people by telling them they're being irrational.

And you know, yeah I think she's a religious nut too but I'm not defending Letitia, I think what she's saying is ridiculous and dangerous, especially considering her station. My post wasn't really about her as an individual, I was just trying to make a broader point about anti-vax and just medical distrust in the black community and where it comes from because I've noticed people not seem to acknowledge that at all. When the Covid vaccines become available I know there will be black people who don't trust it and I don't want people here to just dismiss all the reasons why and just loop them in with your typical crazy anti-vaxxers.

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That's fine I guess but this thread is about her. It would be one thing if she actually did bring up that history and maybe it would be understandable why she would be hesitant to trust a vaccine. But she didn't. There's no nuance or deeper context here. Her entire reasoning is based on thinking anything with Lucifer in it must be bad and a complete misunderstanding of biology.

 

[Rookhelm]

The funny thing about "just asking questions" is that anyone who says that has no intention of listening to the answers

 

[BBboy20]

So, uh, who else became Black Panther?

 

[Maxim726x]

Maybe we should stop looking at actors and actresses as some kind of moral guidepost.

Yeah, I get it, they have a large platform. That doesn't mean we should give a shit about what their (usually) ignorant opinion is.

 

[Volimar]

So, uh, who else became Black Panther.

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It's clearly Martin Freeman's time to shine.

 

[Deleted member 33533]

It's pretty easy to be like "hey black folks have been mistreated and there should be a healthy skepticism because of experiments done on them in the past" vs. sharing a video where one of the premises that is used against vaccination is "there's an enzyme named after lucifer". If you want to give her the benefit of the doubt, that's up to you, but if she actually was skeptical because of the former and not the latter wouldn't she say so? I know I would. Religious indoctrination is really tough to overcome, but really sad thing is, the foundation of many religions is tolerance and love and yet the only thing some religious folks pay attention to is the intolerance. Why come up with so many reasons to discount and "other" other people.

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Like I said in the post you quoted, I'm not defending her. I don't know how I can make it any more clear than that.

Also I agree that religious indoctrination is tough to overcome and I do not condone any of the crazy religious stuff Letitia is spouting. That said, do I think there can be a link between black people having a mistrust of a medical system that has mistreated them for decades and religious indoctrination? Yeah, I can very much see how they're linked. When you've been historically abused by the medical system and government, I think that makes you very vulnerable to religious indoctrination. Again this isn't to condone or give the benefit of the doubt. I'm just acknowledging that this is a problem that goes deeper than just calling one person a crazy.

That's fine I guess but this thread is about her. It would be one thing if she actually did bring up that history and maybe it would be understandable why she would be hesitant to trust a vaccine. But she didn't. There's no nuance or deeper context here. Her entire reasoning is based on thinking anything with Lucifer in it must be bad and a complete misunderstanding of biology.

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I realize that this thread is about her but she is not the only person to think this and I was specifically responding to a poster who said they heard similar things in the black community and their own family. I've also heard it in my extended family and so I was speaking to that. There's a new thread on Etcetera about this right now and on the first page you already have someone dismissing black peoples experiences and comparing them to MAGAs. That's really what I'm trying to point out. There is a deeper context and no its not right nor does it justify it but ignoring it won't make it go away.

 

[Maxim726x]

So, uh, who else became Black Panther.

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Hannibal Burress... He's free now. Give him the job.

 

[base_two]

So, uh, who else became Black Panther.

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I don't understand why people are pushing for Shuri to be Black Panther suddenly in the sequel anyway. There's like zero character development for that story beat in the MCU. Ryan Coogler specifically rewrote Shuri away from "princess warrior who wants the throne" vibes in the comic book runs to more of a 007 'Q' character.

 

[Eeyore]

It's clearly Martin Freeman's time to shine.

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[Pineapple Taco]

It's clearly Martin Freeman's time to shine.

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I think you're a few pages behind the the thread. He's talked about beating his kids. Edit: plus the whole white guy thing lol.

 

[Volimar]

I think you're a few pages behind the the thread. He's talked about beating his kids.

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Dude, it wasn't a serious suggestion.

 

[Pineapple Taco]

Dude, it wasn't a serious suggestion.

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My bad.

 

[LukeOP]

How does Disney find these actors?

 

[Mekanos]

Maybe we should stop looking at actors and actresses as some kind of moral guidepost.

Yeah, I get it, they have a large platform. That doesn't mean we should give a shit about what their (usually) ignorant opinion is.

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People value their opinions whether we like it or not.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Lol. Stop caring what famous people think.

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"It's your fault that you're offended by antivax shit and transphobia; just don't listen to her and problem solved."

You figured it all out, chief. Just change the very human nature of millions of people rather than telling off people with a huge platform when they talk shit.

Every person in this thread shitposting this smug, condescending attitude of being above it all, are doing nothing more than showing how much they care about the actual issue being discussed.

 

[HustleBun]

Yeah, I know anti-vax talk especially from a celebrity with some influence is dangerous but I think there's a nuance here a lot of posters don't realize. There is a lot of skepticism and mistrust of this sort of thing baked in to the black community from experience, I have some of that in my family as well. Does anyone here know about the Tuskegee Experiments?

I don't know if we should just be beating down on Letitia and people who say this without looking at those deeper contexts. And it's difficult because it doesn't just stop at anti-vax, it creeps into bigotry and conspiracy theories - obviously these things must be condemned. I don't know the right way to really go about fixing this or even addressing it. Once again it's another example of the US government failing its black citizens.

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Yeah, this is hard to delicately speak about but you put it quite well.

There are a lot of people in the black community that (understandably) mistrust the government and have fallen into circles that preach safety and protection for Black lives but simultaneously dabble in anti-science or even antisemitism and homophobia.

We have every right to be disgusted or put off by Letitia Wright's use of her platform, but I personally view this in a different light than I do a straight white dude saying the same stuff.
Incredibly disappointed with Letitia but I'm kind of expecting more to come. More Letitias, Ginas, Pratts or John Voights.

 

[Soupman Prime]

another comment from him.

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Well I can't disagree with him here. There's plenty of times people have posted something and the regretted it. I don't know the type of relationship he has with her but maybe he felt the tweet was too much and deleted it. Do people really think Disney would tell him to delete it and be nice when Don has always been outspoken about many things.

 

[Huey]

Sounds like about 20% of Era.

 

[HustleBun]

Wow. Don Cheadle being a human being.
"Oh shit you guys were right, that video was trash" and admitting he was wrong. Respect that a lot. It shouldn't be a rare personality trait though.

How often do we actually see celebrities do that after they get called out? Serious question.

Maybe it warrants a separate discussion but I can't think of many people who take full ownership of saying or believing something ignorant and making a genuine attempt to accept responsibility.

I can think of a couple YouTubers maybe. A singer from a band I like.