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Insecure, Atlanta, and the Black Experience

How black screenwriters brought their unique life experiences to the small screen.

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Insecure, Atlanta, and the Black Experience

As a black nerd, a seemingly small minority of a minority, I look to my television screen and I rarely see characters that I can relate to. They often have characteristics that I grab onto or aesthetics that I can relate to, but nothing close to the whole.

TV shows like HBO’s breakout hit Insecure and FX’s Atlanta introduce a black experience that is rarely showcased in television or movies. And I surely latched onto them like a magnet and saw the world through eyes that were even clearer than my own.

FX's Atlanta introduced a world that was foreign enough to the typical viewer to be intriguing, but familiar enough to be relatable.

Donald Glover, the show's creator, writer, and star, is a 33 year old multitalented superstar in the worlds of comedic writing, music, and television. The former 30 Rock writer grew up in the city of Atlanta, Georgia and drew from his experiences to develop the television show.

In an interview with the Television Critics Association, Brian Tyree Henry, who plays Alfred 'Paper Boi' Miles in Atlanta, talks about Donald Glover's writing skill saying, "There are so many images of us that aren’t really representatives of who we are at all. People pick and choose how they want to see our lives. I feel like Donald is just a genius at exposing these lives and people that you probably won’t really know about.”

Atlanta is about two cousins navigating Atlanta's rap scene in efforts of bettering their lives and the people around them. To see the interworking of a rapper just starting out in the industry, is alone a topic that catches attention on its own. But what makes Atlanta stand out is Donald Glover's writing. Donald Glover knows how his people talk and interact with each other, and he isn't afraid to get it in writing and display it on the small screen to millions of viewers.

In Hollywood, the Black woman is often stereotypically portrayed. The audience often only sees one side of her. But, shows like HBO’s Insecure unveil a black woman who is shown from all 360 degrees.

Issa Rae, the show’s front runner and creator, is a multitalented writer and actress who gained traction during the Internet era through her webseries The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. Her series started in 2006, when YouTube just began gaining traction. The series ended up gaining over two hundred thousand subscribers.

After failed pilots, such as one involving Scandal creator Shanda Rhimes, her creation Insecure became green lighted by HBO back in 2013.

In an interview with Elle magazine, Issa Rae talks about the opportunities for people of color in Hollywood “Professionally, I think that this is such an old boys’ club industry---people only hire their own in a way that’s detrimental. Then other people can’t make a living, and there’s always an excuse....So, for me, it’s just about switching things up, and providing people opportunities who want them.”

Insecure and Atlanta are both television shows that were created to showcase the black experience in a way that is true to them. Expanding the black experience on television and showing black people as people first, helps to dismantle the racial stereotypes that burden mainstream media. Shows like these prove that black has more than one definition.

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