Hollywood isn't treating Black TV right, and Issa Rae isn't playing nice. The person behind Insecure and Rap Sh! took to the SXSW 2025 stage to lay down hard truths about the industry's long legacy of using Black audiences to make money and throwing us if it doesn't suit them. And she's not just talking the talk; she's walking it with facts in her soon-to-be-released HBO docuseries, "Seen & Heard."
In her keynote, Rae wasn't shy about explaining that the erasure of Black television history isn't a pipe dream conspiracy; it is a well-documented fact. "I know it sounds a little like a conspiracy," she confessed. "But to have the actual creators, showrunners, and writers tell the history of that, it's undeniable."
The new docuseries "Seen & Heard," which is due to premiere later this year on HBO and Max, features the voices of entertainment giants Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, Shonda Rhimes, Ava DuVernay, and even the late superb Norman Lear. Their accounts provide an insight into a repeated cycle: Hollywood capitalizes on the networks and success of Black creatives, then discards them once the cultural moment changes. "We wanted to do an all-encompassing history to show, with evidence, that this is how they built the success of their networks and generations, on our backs, and we don't have almost anything to show for it, as a result of that," Rae said. "It's tragic, and history is repeating itself."
But the documentary does much more than list injustices the whole time; it hands flowers to the Black creators who revolutionized, game-changed, and purified the aesthetic without any backing from the sector. "To get Oprah, to be able to give Mara Brock Akil her flowers, for Tyler Perry to talk about his journey in creating a studio that so many of us look up to even just for me watching it and hearing some of these stories for the first time, just inspiring to me," Rae said. "The end of that documentary makes me want to do more and get my s### together."
Yet Rae didn't just halt at past erasure; she condemned the present backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in Hollywood. "I feel like the diversity initiative requires a better publicist," she laughed. But she immediately turned serious about how efforts to level the playing field are being aggressively rolled back. "And the anti-DEI, the immediate retracting of any attempt to level the playing field and pay attention to our stories, I think it comes from a big misconception and a fear."
Rae's dedication to accurate representation and equity is not symbolic. Most recently, she made a power move by canceling her upcoming event, An Evening With Issa Rae, at Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center. The action followed former President Donald Trump's takeover of the institution's board, booting appointees from the Biden administration. Rae explained via Instagram: "Unfortunately, due to what I believe to be an infringement upon the values of an institution that has lifelong given space to artists from all backgrounds via all mediums, I've decided to cancel my appearance at this venue."
Issa Rae has never been afraid of an awkward conversation, so it's a good thing "Seen & Heard" is pushing toward an unvarnished examination of Hollywood's past and present as it relates to Black creatives. In the way that only she can, with honesty, humor, and a little activism, she's letting the industry know that its selective memory will no longer go unchallenged.
0 Comments