Issa Rae has officially reached the awkward level of celebrity where she’s just famous enough for paparazzi to know her name, but not quite famous enough for those same paparazzi to know what she looks like. That’s not even a plot line from the new season of Insecure: It actually happened. Issa tweeted last night that she was in an airport and heard paps behind her as they proceeded to snap photos of another black actress that, alas, was not her.
Although Issa did not explicitly mention the incident had anything to do with racism, the situation seems like it plays into the tired and offensive old stereotype that all black people look the same. Not all black actresses look the same, okay?
But maybe it’s not all bad. Issa did, after all, star in a web series titled The Misadventures of an Awkward Black Girl and write a memoir with the same title. The memoir—a New York Times Bestseller—actually caused an awkward moment of its own on the Golden Globes red carpet. so So it would seem she’s no stranger to awkward situations. The sticky situation could also end up becoming fodder for the third season of Insecure—which should have been released approximately five minutes ago—or any of her other two HBO shows.
Whichever way you slice it, Issa’s fans knew exactly what to do: have some fun with it.
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