Meryl Streep's controversial T-shirt

Actress Meryl Streep has caused controversy over the T-shirt worn to promote her new movie Suffragette. Photo / Getty Images

Actors Meryl Streep and Carey Mulligan have come under fire for wearing T-shirts with a controversial slogan to promote their film Suffragette.

The T-shirts read "I'd rather be a rebel than a slave".

The quote is attributed to British suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst, who is portrayed by Streep in the new film.

Meryl Streep just got DRAGGED by Black Twitter. http://t.co/wlgqIYFiER pic.twitter.com/pI0jn8NtlP

— BET (@BET) October 5, 2015

But the T-shirts have been labelled racially insensitive because of the connotations to black slavery in the US.

"No one thought this was a bad idea? Come on Streep. You're smiling with the word slave on a t-shirt," tweeted Celeste M.

Mixfem tweeted "Meryl Streep does not know how the label 'slave' follows people, that's why she's able to smile while wearing her shirt."

"Meryl Streep has to know better. And if not, her publicist should have," tweeted Deray Mckesson.

Kerry tweeted "Whitesplaining gets on my nerves, and I'm not black. It is a thing. I wouldn't wear such a shirt."

Meryl Streep does not know how the label "slave" follows people, that's why she's able to smile while wearing her shirt

— Taylor Simone (@Underdogs___) October 5, 2015

White women have said a lot of terrible things over the course of history, doesn't mean you wear it on a shirt. https://t.co/Y02pmmnJCL

— Jamilah Lemieux (@JamilahLemieux) October 5, 2015

Meryl Streep has to know better. And if not, her publicist should have.

— deray (@deray) October 5, 2015

The film is about the British suffragette movement which helped women get the right to vote.

Last week Streep made headlines for calling herself "a humanist" rather than a feminist, during an interview with TimeOut London.