Meryl Streep’s 'We Are All Africans' Comment Creates Furor In Berlin International Film Festival

In the heights of the Oscar So White controversy, Meryl Streep gave out a 'colored' comment that set people talking at the Berlin International Film Festival which kicked off on February 21.

The academy-award winning actress sat as the head of the international jury in the film fest and in the middle of a press conference, an Egyptian journalist asked the panel, who are all Caucasians, if they 'can understand films from the Middle East and Africa', LA Times said.

"I don't know very much, honestly, about the Middle East," Streep told the audience.

She went on saying, "And yet I've played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures, and the thing that I notice is that we're all - there is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture. And after all, we're all from Africa, originally. You know, we're all Berliners, we're all Africans, really. I think we - look, we have a critic on our jury, we have a director on our jury, we have actors on our jury. We have a photographer, cinematographer. People will be looking at different things in these films."

The 66-year old actress' comment then set a lot of speculations if she is taking an anthropological standpoint or making an affirmation on John F Kennedy's famous speech "I Am A Berliner."

The Hollywood awardee, on the other hand, made a positive note that keeps people agreeing when she talked about inclusion of all types of people regardless of socio-cultural backgrounds.

"I'm very committed to equality and inclusion of people of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions. There should be inclusion, and this jury is evidence that at least women are included and in fact dominate this jury. And that's an unusual situation in bodies of people who make decisions. So I think the Berlinale is ahead of the game."

Last year in October, Meryl Streep caused a lexical confusion on the words written "I'd rather be a rebel than a slave," on her shirt while promoting the movie Suffragettes, Vox reported.

The message is said to have rang a very sensitive historical event, that of literal slavery that caused people to become upset, as Vox's writer Alex-Abad Santos said.

Meanwhile, Streep's 'We Are All African' comment has created mixed emotions on social media.

"Meryl Streep's comments reveal the profound ways in which white people conflate evolution & history to erase real Africans & the diasporas," one wrote as mentioned in CNN.

Some, however, chose not to make it an issue.

"Aww. Leave Meryl Streep alone. She gets a pass because she's only the best actress alive. #WeAreAllAfrican Haha!"