{"id":4522,"date":"2011-10-08T09:27:05","date_gmt":"2011-10-08T15:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.orijinculture.com\/community\/?p=4522"},"modified":"2014-07-22T06:49:44","modified_gmt":"2014-07-22T12:49:44","slug":"awkward-black-introducing-issa-rae","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/awkward-black-introducing-issa-rae\/","title":{"rendered":"Awkward is the New Black: Issa Rae"},"content":{"rendered":"

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nWeb sensation Issa Rae is a woman on mission: the twenty-seven year old Senegalese-American wants to change the depiction of people of color. And it\u2019s about time\u2014 it\u2019s not often people of color are portrayed as diverse in Hollywood. Rae\u2019s web series, The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl, does just that; it\u2019s a platform for well written characters in wacky situations. ABG\u2019s rise in popularity is due to people of color being shown in a universal light. And people want more: Awkward Black Girl\u2019s Kickstarter campaign successfully exceeded its $30,000 goal (it raised over $56,000). Recently, Issa took time out of her busy schedule to talk with Orijin Culture about her web series and the challenges in mainstream media.<\/p>\nDescribe the premise of Awkward Black Girl.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThe show is about an insecure girl, who goes through social situations and overanalyzes them. But they\u2019re everyday situations\u2014everybody has been through something in the show.<\/p>\nWhat prompted you to create ABG?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nI had the idea two years ago, but I didn\u2019t have the resources at the time. At the time I wanted it to be animated, so I sat on the idea and tried to find animators. I told one of my friends, who is an artist, about my idea. She thought it was really funny, but she couldn\u2019t do it. Then a couple of months later, she sent me a link to an article asking where the black Liz Lemon is. I really identified with that character\u2026 it was similar to my idea, like Where are the awkward Black girls? Someone\u2019s putting it out there and asking for it. I need to stop sitting on it, take action, and do it.<\/p>\nWhy should people watch ABG?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nEverybody should watch because it\u2019s so relatable. Sure it\u2019s called ABG, but you can relate to what she\u2019s going through, been through, and thinking because we\u2019ve all been there at some point. It takes life\u2019s trivial moments and interactions, and amplifies them in comedic situations.<\/p>\nWhat\u2019s the secret to ABG\u2019s success?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nWell, the fact it\u2019s relatable and people have been through those moments helps. The word of mouth has been huge; it\u2019s pretty much the success of the show so far. Also the fact that it\u2019s different\u2014it makes people excited and want to see other things that are different. People are tired of seeing limited characters on screen. They are demanding more diverse characters and I think that helps too.<\/p>\nDoes casting yourself\u2014a dark-skinned woman with a natural hairstyle\u2014 in the lead role impacts women and men?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nYes, it makes a huge impact. I got a letter from a father and it really touched me. It said, \u201cThank you for being natural on the show. It really helps my 13 year old daughter fight the perm monster.\u201d I mean\u2026 here\u2019s this Black father trying to teach his young daughter about natural beauty. There\u2019s nothing necessarily wrong with perming your hair or pressing it. But there is something wrong with thinking that your own hair is disgusting and nappy or unkempt. That\u2019s when it\u2019s problematic. Do what you want with your hair, but don\u2019t hate what you\u2019ve been born with. If we have more characters that embrace and love their natural hair, it would definitely boost the confidence of a lot of young women.<\/p>\nOne of the quotes from one of Awkward Black Girl\u2019s episodes was \u201cTelevision has a very limited scope and range in it\u2019s depiction of people of color. We want to change that.\u201d From your perspective, why does television have limited options for people of color?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\nThat\u2019s a great question. Because Black people are still grouped together. America has a black president, but we\u2019re still not varied in our depictions of people. There\u2019s no acknowledgement that we are different people. Even on the special reports it\u2019s like, What\u2019s going on with Black women as a whole? There\u2019s no separation and we\u2019re not all the same. We share a culture, but we\u2019re not the same people. That\u2019s not understood, especially in mainstream Hollywood or in television in general. Hollywood people think that they know what we like and what we want to see\u2014and that\u2019s a limited a group of people. Once Hollywood figures out we\u2019re not the same group, the same woman, or the same man\u2026 then we\u2019ll start to see more diverse depictions. Until then, we\u2019re going to see the same characters.<\/p>\nSo we see limited images of ourselves on TV and film. How much do we limit ourselves as people of color?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nWe play a role\u2014and it\u2019s a vicious cycle. If we see what we\u2019re supposed to be\u2026 then we\u2019re going to call other people out on not being what we\u2019re supposed to be. So if this image is constantly projected of us, we believe it. If someone challenges that image\u2014and we\u2019re so used to it\u2014we\u2019re gonna call people out.<\/p>\nIf TV is limited in scope and range, how is ABG helping to change the TV landscape?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nI think it\u2019s helping to change it just by offering different views of minorities. Sujata Day (who plays CeCe) mentions that she gets typecast a lot. With her being Indian, we\u2019re changing that. We don\u2019t necessarily acknowledge race all the time, and do poke fun at stereotypes. We\u2019re changing the landscape that way.<\/p>\nIn a recent Clutch interview, it was asked how you deal with adversity in a predominately white male industry. You said you thrived on being \u2018the other\u2019 because it helps you to stand out. How does being \u2018the other\u2019 drive your storytelling?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nI think being \u2018the other\u2019 helps me tell stories because they\u2019re not told. If someone wants to keep on telling the same story, fine\u2014bore people. But I\u2019m telling a different story and calling attention away from that. So being \u2018the other\u2019 helps. Maybe BET wants to keep putting out the same thing\u2026 fine\u2014limit yourself. But I rather do the other because at least I\u2019ll be telling somebody\u2019s story. Or speaking on behalf of somebody\u2019s voice, and that\u2019s worth it to me. I don\u2019t need to be like everybody else in that sense, because it\u2019s boring.<\/p>\nBy Yolanda Riley<\/p>\n<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-4527\" title=\"Awkward-Black-Girl\" src=\"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Awkward-Black-Girl.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"635\" height=\"391\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Web sensation Issa Rae is a woman on mission: the twenty-seven year old Senegalese-American wants to change the depiction of people of color. And it\u2019s <a class=\"moretag signature-animation\" href=\"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/awkward-black-introducing-issa-rae\/\">CONTINUE READING<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-underground-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Awkward-Black-Girl2.jpg?wsr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4522"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6178,"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4522\/revisions\/6178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orijinculture.com\/community\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}