British-Nigerian actor, David Oyelowo, has spoken up after his latest movie, Come Away,  was subjected to racial attacks by trolls.

The Guardian reports that Oyelowo  has spent a professional lifetime talking about racism made the headlines after Come Away was tagged as a racism story.

Following negative remarks from trolls,  it was reported that IMDb, the online database of film information, took the movie down in October after it was “review-bombed” (referring to the negative feedback to artificially lower its ratings.)

Reports revealed that many films that get review-bombed are about race or gender and feature non-white or female leads.

Why was Come Away review-bombed?

According to reports, the fantasy movie; starred Oyelowo, a father, and Angelina Jolie who played mother bringing up young children who just happen to be Peter Pan and Alice from Wonderland.

Guardian reports that the fact that Alice and Peter are mixed-race has fuelled a campaign against the film.

What did Oyelowo think about the negative remarks?

Oyelowo is appalled but not surprised. What type of things were the bombers saying? “The comment I read that made me realise I had to call the IMDb website to make them aware that we were being subjected to these racist comments was: ‘Here we go again – Hollywood seeking to erase our whiteness.’”

The irony is, Oyelowo says, these people are treating Peter Pan and Alice as if they were historical figures. “This is around a story that is fictional, fantasy and a fairytale.”

His voice rises in disbelief at the madness of assuming Peter or Alice have to be white. “You just put your hands up and say OK, this is why people have a problem with John Boyega being a stormtrooper or with Halle Bailey being cast as the mermaid in The Little Mermaid. This is why an all-female version of Ghostbusters is a threat to certain men because it’s an encroachment on what they deem to be their territory.” All the movies he mentions were review-bombed.