A decade after her groundbreaking HBO series Insecure premiered, Issa Rae sees the industry backsliding into a lack of diversity.
The 3x Golden Globe nominee explained that “Hollywood is in an identity crisis right now,” citing a pivot to social media creators and away from meaningful storytellers as she detailed how hard it is to get something made as a woman of color.
“I started Awkward Black Girl because there was a dearth of representation in the industry, and it felt like this was my opportunity to put an archetype into the space that didn’t exist at the time,” she explained to The Wrap during a recent panel.
“And now, even after so much progress, we’re kind of back to limited representation and having to stake claim of our stories,” added Rae. “We’re back where we started, in a way, but wiser.”
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Rae revealed that execs of color have told her they “can’t cosign you” out of fear of losing their jobs, “tiptoeing” around the rollback of DEI.
“I’m seeing it. Just blatantly,” she said. “People aren’t investing like they were before. [DEI] has changed meanings and has become a bad word.”
Rae noted, “You have to be smarter about how you package and market [projects]. You tell them, ‘It’s not a show about a Black woman, it’s a show about class.’ As icky as that might feel, it gets the show sold.”
Based on her YouTube series Awkward Black Girl, HBO’s Insecure ran for five seasons from 2016 to 2021.
Rae nominee most recently signed a three-year first-look deal with Paramount, which was one of several media companies to follow Trump’s directives on rolling back DEI since its Skydance merger last year.