Quvenzhané Wallis, the 10-year-old actress set to play the protagonist in the updated Annie film, has already proven she has the chops to carry the role. But there are those in so-called post-racial America who clearly aren’t prepared to see a Black girl take over the role traditionally played by a white redhead.
After the trailer for Annie debuted last week, fans were glowing in their anticipation of the family holiday film starring Wallis and Jamie Foxx. However, a vocal faction of naysayers on Twitter didn’t take too kindly to the recasting of Annie and hurled racist barbs at Wallis.
Largely missing the point that the world has changed since the Little Orphan Annie film in 1932 and the film Annie in 1982, Twitter users cracked insensitive jokes but were met with some snappy retorts as compiled by The Raw Story.
“The New Annie is black… I’m not racist, but,” wrote now-deleted user @cortneycochrane, who got readily checked by @FoxyJazzaBelle who pointed out the obvious snafu in the statement. Another Twitter nitwit ,@taylorhartwell, wrote, “I don’t like this remake of Annie. There can’t be a black Annie” – and he got fried by Twitter as well, then deleted his account.
“They turned Annie black. I have no problems with black people. I have a problem with a non-ginger Annie,” wrote user @shamy_feels, who deleted the tweet but bravely kept her account live.
Hip-Hop Wired did a quick scan of Twitter, and we weren’t shocked to find the discussion was still ongoing. Of course, folks are posting up their harebrained thoughts and getting roasted for them only to delete them later.
The cast of Annie is a diverse one, starring the aforementioned Wallis and Foxx who are joined by Cameron Diaz, Rose Byrne, and Bobby Cannavale. You know, not all Blackity-Black like Twitter would have you believe.
Check out the gallery to see a the few tweets we were able to grab from the chumps who can’t get over the fact Quvenzhané Wallis is playing Annie. We also included some sensible fact-based tweets to balance out the ignorance.
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Photos: TNYF/WENN, Twitter
