Amandla Stenberg Stepping Away From 'Black Panther' Shuri Audition Is an Acknowledgement of Colorism

Black Panther has roared into a pop culture zeitgeist due to its responsible representation of Black people and challenging the long-enforced ideologies of what a superhero looks like. The movie is filled with fierce, strong and inspirational Black men and women of power—and almost all of them of are a darker complexion.

Amandla Stenberg, who was going to audition for the role of T'Challa's younger sister Shuri, realized the importance of the film's skin tone and decided to back out. In an interview with CBC Arts, the 19-year-old actress revealed she turned down the opportunity because it didn't feel right. "One of the most challenging things for me to do was to walk away from Black Panther. I got really, really close and they were like, ‘Do you want to continue fighting for this?’ And I was like, ‘This isn’t right,'" she explained. "These are all dark-skin actors playing Africans and I feel like it would have just been off to see me as a biracial American with a Nigerian accent just pretending that I’m the same color as everyone else in the movie."