When you’re a celebrity, the line from Spiderman about great power coming with great responsibility is definitely true. When you have a large platform, people will hold the messages you share with that platform to a much higher standard. Letitia Wright just discovered this.
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Letitia Wright is an actress best known for her portrayal of Shuri in *Black Panther*.
The 27-year-old actress has also appeared on Top Boy, Doctor Who, and Black Mirror , as well as other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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Letitia recently came under fire after sharing a video from Tomi Arayomi, a senior leader with Light London Church on her Instagram that called into question the upcoming coronavirus vaccine as well as casting doubt on climate change and spreading transphobic ideas.
“These are the dangers of the world we’re entering into today, where if you say a thing enough times people will actually believe it’s true,” Tomi said in the video.
“This kind of science by convenience where I’ll believe in science when it’s convenient to global warming, but I won’t believe in it when it’s convenient to gender, when it inconveniences my particular ideology, is the very reason why, if you’re working in the UN, World Health Organization, or the mass news or dial media heads, the reason the public doesn’t believe you,” Tomi says. Tomi also states he doesn’t know how vaccines work medically, but continues to raise concerns.
Fans immediately began calling out Letitia for sharing the video uncritically, to which Letitia defended herself.
After tweeting that she wasn’t conforming to popular opinion and thinking for herself, Letitia added , “[I] still have a right to worry about how my body will react. It’s not lazy, it’s thinking for myself.”
“The man in the video said he knew nothing about vaccines medically, Letitia,” tweeted one fan in response.
Even Letitia’s Marvel co-star, Don Cheadle, responded to the backlash, calling the video “hot garbage,” and added he was not defending “anybody posting this.”
Letitia has since deleted the tweet sharing the video, and has added “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.”
What do you think of this controversy? Let us know in the comments!
