Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya Responds To Samuel Jackson’s Black British Casting Criticism

Last week, Star Wars: The Last Jedi's John Boyega blastedStar Wars alum and Marvel star Samuel L. Jackson for his criticism against the Black British casting of the critically acclaimed 2017 horror thriller by Jordan Peele, Get Out.

Now, Daniel Kaluuya, the lead star of the film, responds to Jackson's comments in an interview with GQ. "Big up Samuel L. Jackson, because here's a guy who has broken down doors. He has done a lot so that we can do what we can do," he first acknowledges all that Jackson's done for the community. Then Kaluuya proceeds with Jackson's criticism saying:

"Here's the thing about that critique, though. I'm dark-skinned, bro. When I'm around black people, I'm made to feel 'other' because I'm dark-skinned. I've had to wrestle with that, with people going, 'You're too black.' Then I come to America, and they say, 'You're not black enough.' I go to Uganda, I can't speak the language. In India, I'm black. In the black community, I'm dark-skinned. In America, I'm British."

"[Black people in the UK], the people who are the reason I'm even about to have a career, had to live in a time where they went looking for housing and signs would say, "NO IRISH. NO DOGS. NO BLACKS." That's reality. Police would round up all these black people, get them in the back of a van, and wrap them in blankets so their bruises wouldn't show when they beat them. That's the history that London has gone through. The Brixton riots, the Tottenham riots, the 2011 riots, because black people were being killed by police. That's what's happening in London. But it's not in the mainstream media. Those stories aren't out there like that. So people get an idea of what they might think the experience is."

In an interview with Hot 97 last week, Jackson had said that casting Kaluuya had been a letdown for African Americans since he was British Black and not a "brother from America."

While Jackson does have a point saying that a black British actor playing the role of an African American wouldn't be the same as giving it to an actual black American, the colored community does not need the divide. The struggle against racial discrimination is a universal struggle, something that Kaluuya still feels in Britian.

What do you think about the issue? Feel free to share and comment below.

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