Issa Rae's Pro-Black Agenda Fights the White Power Structure
In this op-ed, writer Tayo Bero speaks to the importance of Issa Rae’s public statements and work that reflect the Black experience — even at the expense of white people’s angst.
The day after Issa Rae declared on the 2017 Emmys red carpet that she would be “rooting for everybody Black,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted the move, accusing her of “reverse racism.”
“I just think it’s a divisive habit of thought,” Carlson said to his viewers. “I think looking at the world like that gets you to civil war, actually. I think you should look at people first as individuals.” In response to one woman who agreed with Carlson on Twitter, Issa simply retorted with an epithet for white women: “Sure Jan.”
And it’s not hard to see why she would respond this way — critique like this is irrelevant when you consider who Issa is choosing to center in those moments. In stating that she was rooting for “everybody Black,” she gave us a new language for collective support of Black artists across the board. And while it created one of the biggest memes of the year, the statement was more than a gimmicky nod to the state of Hollywood and the need for better representation. If we examine Issa's career, it’s indicative of a larger attitude toward the kind of art she makes and how she uses her platforms.
Issa stands out as a bold outlier in the industry in a time when it’s a lot easier to pander to a white gaze — especially when that kind of work is continually rewarded by the Hollywood establishment. In Hollywood, there’s always been an appetite for Black film and television that’s concerned with reaching a “universal” audience, often by highlighting stories of Black pain and trauma. Award-winning films like The Help and Green Book have been criticized for what audiences felt were unsatisfactory and sometimes even exploitative portrayals of the Black experience.
Issa, on the other hand, takes a refreshingly light and irreverent approach to her depictions of Blackness. She’s speaking to Black people in their own language and on their own terms, even if it comes at the expense of white people's understanding or approval. In a recent interview with Backstage, she explained why her recent success — two feature films and Insecure’s return for a fourth season — has felt like even more of a victory for her. “It’s an ‘aha!’ to the people I was trying to sell scripts to in the past that were like, ‘You need to be broad' or 'You need to add a white kid, that’s the gateway,’” she said.
The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, Issa’s breakthrough web series, sowed the seeds of that defiance, even at a time when she was still trying to build an audience. A predecessor to the now widely beloved HBO property Insecure, the 2011 YouTube series followed lead character J as she navigated friends, relationships, and increasingly uncomfortable workplace dynamics with much of the same raw honesty that Issa moves through the world with now. Funny, nuanced, and utterly self-aware, the 10-episode comedy felt like a metaphor for the space Issa herself has come to occupy in Hollywood today.
Focused on the lives of Issa and her group of Black, twentysomething friends and lovers living in Los Angeles, Insecure often feels like the inside of a familiar group chat brought to life by characters that audiences have grown to love. From the intricacies of dating to the existential burden that often comes with navigating career moves, Issa has an uncanny way of filtering out the most nuanced aspects of the Black experience and mapping those onto characters who are just like us — messy, complex, and often deeply insecure.
And it’s not just through her own work that she makes a point to bring her most honest self to the table. Earlier this year, while announcing the nominees for best director at the Oscars, Issa called out the fact that none of the people on the list were women. “Congratulations to those men,” she said with a straight face after reading off the all-male list. The gesture was shared widely on social media and sparked renewed conversation about the lack of female representation at the awards, particularly in more prestigious categories like best director.
Back in 2018, while hosting the CFDA Awards at the Brooklyn Museum, Issa took the opportunity to make a powerful statement. The first Black woman ever to host the awards, she hit the red carpet in a sparkly blue jumpsuit/gown meld with a belt that had the title of Boris Gardiner’s famous song “Every N***a Is a Star” embroidered into it.
And although some of these gestures have drawn criticism, she continues to be a voice for Black people, starting conversations about issues that matter specifically to them. Unrelenting in her devotion to authenticity and Blackness, she isn’t looking to be invited into a larger conversation — she’s starting a new one, even if only a few people are having it.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
