It has been quite the year for Issa Rae in Hollywood. After years of doing her own YouTube series, Awkward Black Girl, in 2017 she executive produced and co-created the hit show Insecure of which she also stars–premiering on HBO.
Rae is a Los Angeles native of half-Senegal descent. She is also an alumna of Stanford University.
Rae inked a deal with HBO in 2016 which outlined a two year contract creating diverse content for HBO platforms.
She is moving forward to develop three new shows.
Rae recently announced she will executive produce another show for HBO revolving around a Black family in Los Angeles in the 1990’s.
In addition to this, she is working on a teen drama based in Windsor Hills—an affluent Black neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Issa Rae found herself in a social media firestorm after announcing she will be involved with producing a show revolving around a gay African-American man.
The show will be co-executive produced by Travon Free of The Daily Show and will be based on his life.
A lot of African-American men took to social media and shared their thoughts on Rae’s show including what many referred to as Hollywood’s agenda of emasculating the Black man.
I can see how Black men can perceive the moves by Rae as more representative of the powers that be of media and Hollywood, especially when you have a White woman writing at a news publication under a space entitled “Black voices.” #Problematic.
Who is “we” Alanna?? You do not speak on behalf of Black America.
The Black community has always been criticized for being super homophobic and not understanding of the LGBQT community, so I am not surprised at the negative comments by Black men.
It is important that marginalized voices are given a platform especially Black, gay males.
Within this, I do hope that various representations of Black men and Black manhood come to the screen in 2018.
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