Lena Dunham accused of ‘hipster racism’
Fox411: Zinzi Clemmons, a writer for Lena Dunham’s Lenny Letter announced she’s leaving the newsletter and accused the ‘Girls’ star and her circle of friends of ‘hipster racism.’
Lena Dunham is facing backlash after Steven Spielberg tapped the "Girls" creator to adapt the real-life tale of a Syrian refugee’s incredible survival story. Fans and critics alike called out the liberal star for telling a story that they believe isn’t hers to tell.
According to Variety, Dunham was hired by co-producers Spielberg and J.J. Abrams to adapt “A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival.”
The book, written by United Nations High Commissioner chief spokeswoman Melissa Fleming, tells the true story of Doaa Al Zamel, a mother-of-two fleeing Egypt for Sweden who was stranded at sea for days holding her two small children in her arms on an inflatable water ring.
Dunham announced the news on her Twitter, prompting many to jump on the white actress for telling the story of a Syrian refugee saying the job should have got to writers of Syrian descent.
“A person with your platform needs to provide the opprotunity (sic) for real refugees to tell their stories. Their voices need to be heard, not yours,” one user responded.
“Can I respectfully suggest that if this project happens, you involve as many Syrians and refugees as possible in the making of it? You have a huge platform to get stories out, but I think it would be a sign of good faith to include the people whose story you are telling,” another echoed.
“Plz don’t do this. Not your story at all, and that would really suck for our community to have a white version of this story be the only version a lot of people are exposed to,” someone else said.
“You know there are refugees and people who have expericence (sic) working with them who can write screenplays but yeah, Lena Dunham,” a more sarcastic user noted.
The above tweets are just a sample of some of the negativity being spread about Dunham's involvement in the project as people far and wide seem to not be on board with Spielberg and Abrams' selection. As of this writing, neither Dunham, Spielberg nor Abrams have responded to the backlash over her being tapped to write the project.
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