Last Friday’s post about Letitia Wright is kind of a mess right now because I embedded several tweets from Letitia’s account, and now she’s deleted all of her social media. Letitia got in trouble late Thursday and into Friday because, out of nowhere, she tweeted a video of a YouTuber named Tomi Arayomi, who pontificates about how he’s suspicious of the vaccine and how it’s probably the devil’s work or something. The video was a toxic blend of ignorance, hardcore Christianity and transphobia. Letitia then made it much worse by responding to people in the Twitter thread, claiming that she was being bullied and cancelled merely for “asking questions” and basically using all of the anti-Vaxx talking points. Well, now Leitita has deleted her sh-t:
“This account doesn’t exist” and a blank page is what Twitter users will encounter when they try to search Black Panther star Letitia Wright on the social media platform.
Just a days after the Small Axe actress shared a link to a 70-minute YouTube video by a coronavirus vaccine skeptic, Wright deleted both her Twitter and Instagram accounts. The actress came under fire from fellow Twitter users as the video she linked expressed doubts in the in-progress Covid-19 vaccines, which will begin roll-out in Britain in the coming week. The video sees On The Table host Tomi Arayomi question the possible antidote, despite admitting he has no medicinal understanding of vaccines.
Wright received backlash for not only posting the video, but for defending her posting. She blamed her critics of cancelling once they had called her out for sharing the video, which also featured seemingly transphobic comments.
“If you don’t conform to popular opinions. but ask questions and think for yourself…you get cancelled,” Wright said in a now-deleted tweet, which was originally posted on Friday.
She upped her defense against the online critics, clarifying that she only shared the video to raise concerns about what the vaccine might contain.
“my intention was not to hurt anyone, my ONLY intention of posting the video was it raised my concerns with what the vaccine contains and what we are putting in our bodies. Nothing else,” she wrote in another since-delete tweet.
I’m of the opinion that cancel culture is real – overblown, but real – and that more often than not, the people who are “cancelled” actually deserve it. If anything, people are allowed to come back way too soon. I’m sure some people will argue that Letitia got bullied off social media and how terrible it is that a young Black woman can’t simply exist on the internet. To that I say: she was actively spreading dangerous conspiracies in the middle of a deadly pandemic, and deleting your social media accounts isn’t really some huge punishment.
I do wonder if Letitia was asked/ordered to delete her accounts by Disney/Marvel though – maybe that was the solution from the crisis manager on retainer at Disney.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Such a disappointment. Really love her work. No doubt it was Disney/Marvel telling her to stop with the social media.
She’s also starring in Steve McQueen’s latest project and he certainly wouldn’t want that harmed by her views. Also, her career trajectory is headed upward so her management team may have stepped in before she does irreparable harm. The Disney overlords have allowed others to spout their views so it may not have been Disney.
Yeah, someone from Disney PR has been in touch with her about it. Expect a proper PR statement soon on it.
Interesting…They weren’t in a rush to collect Gina Carano. Gee, I wonder what the difference in the two women is…
I doubt it was Disney. I tend to think it was either her agent or manager that advised her to temporarily delete her account.
Did Carano send out anti-vaxxer stuff?
Disneyland had a measles breakout because of the number of families able to opt-out of vaccines for religious reasons in various places; it prompted the State of California to mandate vaccines for kids before returning to school.
I’m no Gina Carano or Disney Empire fan, and Disney does a lot of awful stuff to it’s employees, but the outbreak at Disneyland in Anaheim might be enough for them to contact her to keep the money flowing. At the same time, her agents are paid to pay attention to who Leticia works for and how to keep them happy so that she keeps her job in the series.
Wright is on the way up, Carano is a big as she’s ever going to be. They have invested more in Wright, so they care more what does or says, because she has a greater ability to effect their bottom line, especially as the Marvel films evolve.
That was before of course. Now they will minimize her role and give her a slow fade out. That way they avoid both the backlash from black fans wondering why they dropped her, and the backlash that would eventually occur once an enterprising reporter sticks a microphone near her mouth.
Carano’s career shouldn’t even have been this big. It’s still not much for someone costarring in a huge streaming series. And no one really follows her so her comments came and not many were bothered to care.
I mean, I think the reason the Disney PR machine went into overdrive over Wright vs Carano is that Wright is more talented and marketable and could have a more impressive (and thus revenue-generating) career than Carano. The Mandalorian is as good as it can get for Carano’s career prospects, methinks. LW is way more talented and probably more likely to go further. Like, I don’t even think of Carano when it comes to Mandalorian and everything connected to it. I do think of Wright when it comes to Black Panther.
I’m sure Disney/Marvel demanded she do it. Developing an Anti-vaxxer, transphobic reputation would damage the franchise. And, quite frankly, her role might be in jeopardy. They don’t want this issue lingering over production and release.
And she legitimately might refuse to take the vaccine which I’m guessing the production will make a requirement.
Yeah thats what i was thinking, she might have to take it if she wants to work on the franchise (and other projects) going forward. I can see insurance companies demanding that. She’ll soon change her mind when it affects her ability to get work.
This was so disappointing. It seemed to me that she just couldn’t admit that she was wrong. Like, yes, it’s ok to “ask questions” but maybe ask them to people who know what they are talking about? And why on earth would something ostensibly about the contents of a vaccine somehow veer into weird anti-LGBTQ rhetoric (which is what I had heard; I did not watch the video)? That should have been the hint that it wasn’t a reputable source.
That “just asking questions” disclaimer sets my teeth on edge.
Both sides-ism had put utter BS on the same level as facts and information. It’s not ok to listen to someone who admits he knows nothing about vaccines and feel entitled to question the work of actual scientists.
This kind of question is also not really a question. It’s a way for someone to make an assertion without explicitly doing so, and thereby avoiding responsibility for saying something that’s patently false.
Kristen
This 100%
“yes, it’s ok to “ask questions” but maybe ask them to people who know what they are talking about?”
yes, this exactly. don’t “ask questions” to someone who says in plain english he doesn’t have a medical background and doesn’t understand the science. ask a doctor (infectious disease or immunologist) or a scientist who works with vaccines.
these people who trust some random on YouTube over a doctor/scientist make my head hurt. would they trust a mechanic to fill a tooth cavity? would they trust a runway model to take out their kidney? would they trust a hair stylist to fix their furnace? would they ask their gardiner to fix their iPhone or take it to the GD Apple store?!
Thoughts and prayers. She’ll be alright because we know she will not be asked about being an ultra Christian anti vaxxer on the Black Panther 2 press junket in 2023.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Disney stepped in. There’s talk of Shuri getting a larger role which will be clouded if Shuri’s actress is sharing videos with transphobia (I heard, I haven’t seen it).
If she’s got questions about the vaccine (which I don’t blame her for especially as how black people have been and currently treated by medical professionals) but Twitter is not where you ask questions. Go to a black virologist/immunologist (if you know one/can ask) and ask them.
@ Sofia, exactly and don’t entertain someone who happens to have zero credibility and ask an accredited professional. Also, the transphobia didn’t help either, which I would think would be much more damaging than trolling her anti-vaccine BS.
Agree with that second paragraph. Question away, be cautious if you feel the need but don’t do it from such a public platform and by sharing such a quack source.
So she was possibly made to delete her account but Pratt gets to keep his and is defended by a bunch of the Marvel crew. I’m not saying it’s sexist, but it does look suspicious. What she was doing is dangerous but so is Pratt’s BS.
The only thing I heard about Pratt recently was that he was just super butt hurt because people called him the worst Hollywood Chris. What exactly did he do that was potentially dangerous?
He’s a member of an anti-LGBT church, and frankly that’s enough for him to be canceled in my book. But he got defended by everyone saying how wonderful he is. Same sh*t people do with active cult member Tom Cruise.
@ Snuffles and @ M, I am so ready for him to disappear. He’s not even talented, I don’t understand his appeal. I think he is a class D actor that happened to marry into another dimension of famous families. Plus, the 11 year age difference is not going to hold up well after the years unless you are both extremely strong emotionally and the marriage is strong. They married into a year of dating. Man, she is going to wake up one day and ask herself, WTF was I thinking!
M, I’ve been thinking about that, because a large part of the backlash against Wright is the transphobia portion of the video. And I think that you really can’t talk to someone because of the church they belong to. Which religion could you practice that isn’t homophobic or anti-gay? Boy would that open a can of worms. Pratt HIMSELF has not shared anything transphobic or anti-gay. And also, Pratt hasn’t shared conspiracy theories about vaccines during a very deadly pandemic. I do think it’s two different situations. Also, Pratt was not defended by “everyone”. Chris Evans notably kept quiet, as did some others.
I can’t stand Pratt. I don’t think the two situations are really comparable though. Not to say that Pratt won’t cancel himself before all is said and done. Guy’s an idiot and very likely IMO a bigot. But he hasn’t gone far enough…yet.
Pratt is not out there saying Lucigen and Lucifer look too much alike and therefore Lucigen is the devil’s work like she did.
@Darla I’m not super familiar with the bible, but preaching hate from the pulpit is the opposite of what Jesus taught. If your church hates LBGTQ+ people you aren’t living Jesus’ teaching.
@M, I actually am not a fan of Chris Pratt, so I don’t really care about him and whether he is cancelled or not. Having said that, mainstream Christianity itself is anti-LBGTQ+ but not all mainstream Christians are anti-LBGTQ+. From some Catholics, to some Baptist, to Pentecostals some Christians are extremely liberal while others embrace every tenet of what their religion teaches. Just about all Christian churches teaches anti-LBGTO+ while having members who are LBGTQ+ among their followers who are embraced by their fellow members. These churches all believe fornication is a sin with members openly living together. They believe divorce is a sin with many divorced members. My point and it’s hopefully already clear, people don’t always people everything their religion teaches.
There was a great Twitter comment that went viral over the weekend (I think it was the weekend, time has no meaning anymore) that essentially said Jack Black could replace Chris Pratt in every role he has played and do as good/better job.
Now I just imagine Jack Black as Starlord and miss what could have been.
My husband told me about that and that is all I can think about. Jack Black would have KILLED that opening scene in GOTG with “Come and Get your Love”. KILLED IT. And by all accounts, Jack Black is a great guy.
That would have been amazing!
I find Chris Pratt to be the least interesting/sympathetic Guardian anyway. Gamora and Nebula’s character arcs are infinitely better and the rest of the side characters are wayyyy funnier.
Pratt’s never done anything concrete, she has. The “homophobic church” thing is not enough, because some people would argue (ME) that all churches are homophobic, and they don’t want to pick that fight with the Christians and Fox News.
Also Pratt has more fans. He has carried more projects, has been the face on the poster. Wright has not. Boseman was the face on her only high profile project. And Lupita was the Award winner/fashion girl. Wright is both too big to behave this way, and not big enough to defend when she does.
Biggest bag fumble of 2020.
I’m not necessarily sure it was Disney/Marvel dealing directly. More likely it was her agent and/or manager who make a percentage of her earnings. Disney would have called them….and then their call to her? Now THAT would have been intense. You can be as big an idiot as you want in Hollywood until you potentially damage your (and their) earning power).
Her Instagram is still up
@M Ah, Right. I think the difference is, like MIA4 S just mentioned, that as long as it doesn’t affect people’s money, a lot of celebrities are free to be idiots. Leticia’s stance, as a cast member of a franchise that is WILDLY popular within the black community, could affect black peoples choices whether or not to trust the vaccine it potentially dangerous on a public health AND economic level.
The world is quite literally banking on these vaccines to get every aspect of the world’s economy back to normal.
Ugh. Look if Marvel did tell her to take it down I got issues cause Gina Carano’s terrible ass comments are still up on Twitter. She also took herself to the new racist/homophobic/sexist platform, Parler. I can only hope her character is getting killed off or something from The Mandalorian.
I wouldn’t be surprised if some higher up asked her to take a step back from social media. Disney is having a very rough year due to the pandemic and I can see them being highly invested in having as many people as possible vaccinated. They need cinemas and their parks to open asap. Having an important part of a very popular franchise be a threat to that would make them nervous. Nervous enough to have someone call her privately.
Cancel culture is a myth. I can count on maybe one hand people who have actually been “canceled” and most are now convicted felons.
But the majority of people who are “canceled” and never actually canceled at all. All have moved on have careers and get jobs and have fans, etc.
As for Letitia she should have just sat there and ate her food. Even if this is how she feels – which clearly it is – she could have kept her mouth shut. But that’s the problem with a lot of problematic celebs. They don’t when to just shut up. I think Disney/Marvel did step in and told her to stop f-cking with their money.
+1 on the mythology of cancel culture. The YouTuber Tee Noir has a great video on a topic related to this!
Almost no one actually gets cancelled, people just yell at them for a few weeks and then all is forgotten. If she plays the game, Letitia will be on the Black Panther 2 press tour in a few years and basically no one will remember this as anything other than a blip.
@lady2lazy
I think Pratt is still living off of the good will and image from Parks and Recreation of his character, Andy, the lovable idiot. I still watch repeats (was watching it this weekend!) of it and it is VERY popular here in the US. His character was dumb as a box of rocks but with a big heart. I think that’s how the public basically still views him.
Remember the time Jason Momoa called Pratt out on Instagram, for total dead serious real, over a disposable water bottle Pratt posed with? Man, that was so great. All this talk about Pratt basically being a dildo reminded me of that.
Deleting your social media accounts is not a punishment … at all.
She still lives her life freely, has lost nothing, and now gets to avoid opinions she doesn’t like.
But it’s telling that some people think she wouldn’t have taken that step herself, as a grown woman with the ability to make simple, self-serving choices like that. The people who assume she’s somebody else’s puppet should ask themselves why they think she doesn’t have free will.
I think it was her choice as well. I’ve no doubt her manager, etc had an opinion and advice but ultimately they work for her not the other way around. Elizabeth Olsen deleted her social media after getting harassed over not posting about Chadwick Boseman’s death. This is different than that but women can face a whole different kind of online backlash and young black female even worse. We discussed this with the Pratt situation. She probably wants it to go away and figures this is the best and quickest way. She’ll probably be back at some point.
Oh I missed that about Olsen. That’s weird.
She was also liking tweets to cancel black panther 2. I think there’s something larger going on with her and she’s leaning really hard into her evangelical Christian faith …we all know how problematic that denomination can be. I hope she gets it together because she has an opportunity many young girls particularly young black girls wish they hard. It will be very sad to watch her self sabotage and throw it all away. Hopefully she has good people around her not just marvel crisis managers that can advise her and make her see the bigger picture.
If she feels that strongly about the vaccine and has become an anti-vaxxer, that’s enough to get her fired from the franchise. Because I have no doubt, everyone filming will be required to get the vaccine in order to eligible for film production insurance.
And that doesn’t even cover that potentially terrible PR for the Black Panther franchise.
And an opportunity to build on the impact a character like Shuri had for all young girls but especially young black females. Shuri is a huge role model and poised to be more so if the rumors of her taking the mantle of Black Panther were true.
Her character is a genius SCIENTIST. Which I thought was a WONDERFUL role model for girls and especially black girls. How is that going to play if she starts going AGAINST science?
I hate this. I hate all of it. I hate the dangerous anti-vaxx crap, I hate the fact that we’re all so on edge that we react like this to one person spewing bullshit on social media, and I hate that people with platforms are taken seriously about things they clearly know f*ck all about. She shouldn’t be canceled (I also don’t think that’s even real), she should be able to educate herself. Unfortunately, hardcore Christians aren’t known to do that.
Sigh. I mi
To be frank, it’s the smartest thing she can do for now. She’s not losing business opportunities not being on Twitter, but her reputation in the industry will take a hit if she winds up doubling down and stumbling that publicly again. Even if she legitimately meant well, the unfortunate reality is that she won’t be able to recover from a major PR blow as well as people with more socioeconomic power. Take some time away, come back thinking more critically about what you put on large social media platform. I wish more celebrities would realize how much better simply not making themselves available for public consumption 24/7 would do them a world of good.
I don’t know who the YTer is so I can’t comment on that part but I do not mind people questioning the vaccine as it should be. I just feel that our Health services have done a huge disservice to us for not being as transparent as they should, for rushing out a product, for not recommending other options that have worked well in other countries (alongside proper social distancing, hand washing, and mask-wearing, etc). I have to go back and see what she was co-signing and how it was put out there before I would say she’s canceled but I do think it should be ok for us to ask hard questions about this process. I also think it’s a huge leap to call her an anti-vaxxer if she only has a problem with this one vaccine and not other vaccines.
I just don’t understand the stupidity of some actors without obvious miners. How hard is it to not say problematic nonsense like this in this day and age unless you are just stupid and self sabotaging your career? This girl had so much good will 2 weeks ago and she’s tossed it all away in a few tweets and postings. While not very many people gets truly cancelled, POC are less likely to be quickly forgiven, which is why most of them know to shut it.
The backlash against cancel culture is funny to me. I feel like we’ve all been conditioned to placate the worst amongst us; I feel like it’s a loud “no more” and while I get the argument of separating the work from the artist, no. This whole country runs on money, so that’s how you have to talk a lot of times. The dialogue and chance to correct a lot of people argue for against cancel culture is something that person must do privately and genuinely. I don’t feel bad.
I’m pro-vaccines and pro-science but I don’t think you can really effectively examine Letitia’s situation without taking a racial lens to it. Black people in general have lower levels of trust in the medical profession(I say this as an educated black woman) because for too long(and even now) black bodies have been used for medical experimentation(historically without consent). I write all this to say that it is not entirely surprising she is skeptical. Anyone who hasn’t heard of the Tuskegee experiment in America should read up on it.
As to her transphobic comments, she is in the wrong and I hope she takes the opportunity to learn from her mistakes.
Nicely and precisely stated.
The majority of my family have decided to take the vaccine AFTER a certain amount of time has past. My father is taking it soon as its available because of his health, he already was hospitalized with it and recovered and my non black husband is taking it. He thinks my family is nuts to be hesitant. Cousins, aunts, uncles. Siblings, basically the rest of us are either not taken it or waiting at the back of the line. Im a educated health professional and so are several members of my family. Im pro vaccine as well.
If Disney/Marvel had a serious conversation or demanded that she take a break and delete her accounts, that means she was in line to be the next Black Panther.
I am not impressed with Ms. Wright and she needs to grow up. She has every right to say what she wants.I don’t necessarily think it was her concerns about the Covid vaccines per se, more likely the Hotep conspiracy theory dude with his nonsense she retweeted, that brought the smoke. She’s not my personality type, but is still young, should pick her battles, and who she champions more carefully because it’s way too easy to negatively label women, especially black women in this business, and write off their careers. Hope she comes back and let’s a good PR team extract her from this.
She needs to stay off social media. She was doing more harm than good there, and ticking everyone off.
I also don’t think it was doing her mental health any good either. She’s obviously still grieving Chadwick along with the rest of the cast, and she probably thinks deep diving into religiosity is what helped her before so she’s being extra af about it now.
However, whoever is in her immediate circle/enviroment is forwarding her a ton of harmful nonsense and she’s not adaptable enough to recognise it for the agenda serving claptrap that it is.
Tbh, I think she needs therapy and a lot of self-discovery (and people from a healthy spirituality around her rather than that evangelical cultism). I think she’s slowly managed to tick off people who would have been fans with her “opinions”. Getting her off her social media is a good idea, I just wish it would stay permanent.
That said, it’s interesting how it’s never bullying or abuse in the same way it would be if a white woman was at the centre of it, when a black woman is the victim of it. That Wright got a deserved dragging for dumb, harmful nonsense, doesn’t change that some people feel a bit too comfortable happily going in on black women as if they couldn’t have any background personal issues and vulnerabilities motivating them; and I side-eye that the first stop on this was hoping that she’d be fired when Pratt, Lily, and co. still have jobs and Wright is practically an unknown noob compared to them and likely to make mistakes.
Personally, I think she has issues that her personal environment atm makes uncomfortable for her.
I find the sudden Chris Pratt Brigade here to be offputting at best and horrifying at worst. Chris Pratt is doing the very same Letitia does, holding the very same opinions, but he won’t face the consequences because he’s white and we need to get that right out of the way.
He’s “apolitical” yet he follows (in)famously popular alt-right accounts on all his social media. You can verify this yourselves by checking the people he follows on Twitter.
He is a confirmed animal abuser on a “not allowed to adopt” list due to verified and quite public animal abuse. So is his ex-wife.
He belongs to an anti-LGBT church that supports conversion therapy. When Elliot Page called him out on it, he replied only with vague platitudes like “I love everyone.” He’s donating to a church that would love it if I or any person like me was dead.
He’s so thin-skinned that he threw a b-tchfit over a random Internet poll that called him The Worst Chris (which he is). And the likes of RDJ and Mark Ruffalo came to his aid, even though they were awfully silent when the bigoted side of the Internet attacked Brie Larson and the cast of Black Panther.
All of this is public information that all of you can easily access. Celebitchy has some articles on him, too, and the comment section is 🔥 as always.
Chris Pratt is a piece of sh-t and worse than Letitia Wright. But I know why the defense squad came in his aid. And I know that Letitia could be fired for this while Pratt negotiates a better contract.
As others have said: no. Cancel Culture doesn’t exist and it is an alt-right dogwhistle (like “virtue signalling”) and people need to pay attention to what terms they use and why.
That said, I’ve been thinking about this and it is very sad. We all have our personal limits and she crossed mine. She supports homophobia and transphobia. She’s a frothing-in-the-mouth religious fanatic. I am done with her. She needs help and I hope she gets it.
She’s not coming from historical and understandable Black distrust of the medical-industrial complex. She’s coming from a frothing-in-the-mouth water-makes-frogs-gay evangelical cult talk. There’s a difference.