By Solomon Hillfleet
With all the noise surrounding us, entertainment remains one of the last refuges in our society. A well-crafted story can speak for major sections of society and in the black community, remains one of the few vehicles of change we have left. With Issa Rae’s show Insecure, she has done something that only a few shows have done, which is to craft something that represents the thoughts and feelings of a generation. Yesterday’s ending represented so much for so many people, but I can see its ending undoubtedly as an overall win for the culture.
Issa’s rise to the top following the success of her web series Awkward Black Girl in 2011 started a wave of independent media that carried over for years as more and more black people embraced their own stories and began flooding the internet with their work. With all the momentum she created, she had big shoes to feel when Insecure came on the scene, but what she did with 5 seasons of a 30-minute show can’t be understated. More than anything, Issa Rae captured the emotion and ideas of millennials in a time of uncertainty.
Leading with authenticity, Issa centered a show around black female leads and painted black male characters evenly. Some of the show’s most pivotal moments have created countless hours of dialogue that have helped put words to some of the community’s most pressing issues while also illuminating some of the culture’s largest boogeymen. Insecure has presented everything from mental health to finance and misogyny and subtly forced other shows to embrace the times.
The success, both critically and commercially, reminds us of how necessary a show like Insecure was while also showing us how limited the media landscape is. It is both unfair and impossible for a show, even one as successful as Insecure, to describe all the aspects of black culture. As accurate as the voices telling the stories have been, none of us should look for a show to reflect the nuances of black culture. Whenever we give a show’s creator such a responsibility, we strip ourselves of the individual responsibility we have to reflect our collective stories in our lives and make them responsible for our happiness.
In the eyes of some, last night’s ending was disappointing. Many will feel as if Issa’s decision to embrace Lawrence’s child cannot offer a happy ending for Issa and reflects the black community’s desire to see women compromise their values. Though many of the stories’ characters seemed to get their own version of happy endings, it undoubtedly will ring hollow to some who will see it as more of a moral victory than a happy ending. While there’s some validity to it, the show’s biggest impact is in how it gave voice and sight to black women’s role and resilience in today’s world.
What bigger message is there than telling us to embrace our own happy endings for our lives? There are several answers to these questions, but the truth is last night we all won because we saw the culmination of one woman’s vision and that is the only victory that should matter to any of us.