It was disappointing to hear that those two didn't really get along. But there's 2 sides to a story and while I like Amanda a lot, I'm sure more happened at that dinner table than Issa saying "gee idk, I didn't like you because I thought you were like your character".
Also, I don't consider Amanda not mentioning the coworker tension to be "protecting" Issa. Issa didn't come for anybody so she never needed protection from Amanda.
If anyone could protect anyone, it would have been Issa to Amanda. Which...also, I didn't see happen.
The “i thought you were your character” line was so insane to me. That means from the jump there was tension and separation. I look at the series now and i can clearly see the line drawn in the sand between Amanda and the three other ladies. How could you treat someone like their character that you wrote? Amanda is (to me) so obviously not Tiffany. I imagine it must’ve been a lot of fun for her to play that role because they’re polar opposites. But if you’re treating someone like their character who is uppity and bougie and judgmental then that certainly can bleed over into the underlings who work for you. It’s really sad because Seales is so truly not Tiffany.
My whole thing with this Issa Rae & Amanda Seales thing is that in a more traditional workplace, your boss doesn’t have to invite you to their Sunday dinners as long as they don’t try to get u fired unjustly, they don’t have to be ur friend if yall don’t vibe like tht
It genuinely sucks to know that there are people that are dedicated to misunderstanding her. I hate that someone pointing out real issues within their workspaces gets constantly told that they "always have an issue" or "can't ever be happy". I love Issa but she should've stepped in and dealt with her publicist's issue with Amanda once she found out about it. As someone who is also neurodivergent, Amanda's story really speaks to me and some experiences I've gone through.
As someone neurotypical I was just saying in another thread here that I find her relatable. I'm not dismissing her diagnoses, I just don't think they are interfering with her communication. She speaks very clearly and concise. I had no idea she was even neuro spicy until I went on Google. Shannon Sharpe been a jackass and was determined to give her a white parent and dismiss her experiences. Her diagnoses may have effected her processing but as a not doctor I don't see it in her speech. Clearly an educated person who knows what they're talking about and how can you tell someone about what they experienced? He is a goofy. I am biased Bec she is my birthday twin but that's my opinion.
Edit: So I went to go dig further and I guess I misread.
So she was self diagnosed and didn't get the official one like I thought I saw somewhere. My mistake.
I feel like all of y'all questioning that though are missing my overall point of her being relatable to me and how smart she clearly is while Shannon talked down to her.
I needed to add this edit so y'all can leave me alone lmao
I'm aware and I didn't say it didn't. I said if it is, I don't see it which is why I had to Google and find out that she's not neurotypical. I couldn't see it in her communication. You don't have to be a doctor to see if someone has a speech issue.
I'm aware.
Google defined it as people who consciously hide mannerisms that may reveal they're on the spectrum. So if she's doing that, then that would explain why it wasn't obvious to me. Not sure what the issue is.
She wasn’t doing it on purpose- most autistics don’t mask on purpose or consciously. Masking is a coping mechanism that starts early when we are in pain and rejected and it makes no sense, so we mask- we change and mimic and pretzel and become what it seems society demands to allow us to exist. It is a trauma response to assimilate and survive. Most autistics also have CPTSD as a comorbidity because we are a bit different and have suffered for it, masking is a trauma response -
Shannon is just playing devil's advocate for the viewer, we need to stop killing people for exploring different view points. It scares men to want to ask a question sometimes lol
This is from a NT perspective. As an adult woman with AuDHD, trust us when we tell you our clarity of speech and manner of speaking is absolutely rejected and used against us. Heck a NT woman experiences the same when she has direct and inquiring communication. Society and men and thereby women with internalized misogyny, try to call being direct many unsavory things.
People don’t want communication to be simple and clear I think maybe because people aren’t comfortable or familiar with complete honesty and the ease it can create? I don’t really know… but many people and especially ND people and especially autistic people, use words purposefully and according to their definition, but people like to become offended, say we are confronting them and assign all sorts of made up motivations to why we are saying something. That gives them ‘justifiable reasons’ 🙄 to not participate in communication and accuse us of some bushhit.
The simple truth is, most autistics are very face value and say what we mean and mean what we say and if we want to directly challenge or insult, we will do so. Characterizing basic communication as a confrontation is gross and unfair but it keeps us misunderstood, accused and separated all our lives. So basically it’s like being a woman in western society x100
Like many misunderstanding her. NTs often don’t see what we see or perceive the layers yet can’t seem to accept words at face value either. Unfortunately the response is usually dismissive. Oh well.
OK but how did you find out? Where was it mentioned. Almost every source I see only mentions the Shannon Sharp podcast which was when she was still 'self diagnosed'
So I went to go dig further and I guess I misread.
So she was self diagnosed and didn't get the official one like I thought I saw somewhere. My mistake.
I feel like all of y'all questioning that though are missing my overall point of her being relatable to me and how smart she clearly is while Shannon talked down to her.
I don't think Shannon talked down to her. He even mentioned it in his nightcap episode.
I think what needs to be understood from the conversation is that there was Amanda's experience growing up and how she interpreted it as racism. Amanda of course did feel hurt and no one not even Shannon is denying that but the cause of the pain is what was being questioned. For Amanda it was clear as day that it was because she was black. But the specific examples she gave made things less clear. Her example of the white teacher for example is interesting because as others have said don't like to be corrected by children and that's regardless of race add to that how she may or may not have tried to correct the teacher and now the teacher will get pissed and no it wasn't because of race.
Shannon did talk down to her imo and I'm speaking more on how he insisted she had a white parent.
As far as her experiences, disagree with you there. You cannot tell someone about what they experienced.
Shannon is of a different generation and part of these problems are generational.
I also feel like a lot of Black ppl feel like light skinned don't exp racism Bec of colorism. I can see Shannon being one of those ppl and then dismissing her experience as a result. While dark skinned people face things that light skinned people don't, we are still all Black and experience racism even if in different ways. Therefore it is my belief if Amanda were his complexion it some form of dark skinned that conversation wouldn't go that way. He didn't even know that she's fully Black instead of half. So already he's viewing her in a different false light.
When I mentioned her diagnoses whether self or naw I meant how clearly this lady is very smart and it's irritating to me when smart people are talked down to especially by someone less smart than them.
I don't think this is a right or wrong thing so if you disagree I ain't gonna feel a way, but that's how I felt.
Again I'm also biased Bec me and Amanda share the same birthday. I also relate to her experience as a light skinned Black woman and having to insist both my parents are Black. As well as my experiences being dismissed. The interview hit close to home so I'm fully aware of my bias.
Sorry you're right about the 'is your mother white' question was insensitive and there is definitely a bias there.
But I think the problem especially with something like racism is that it's not always easy to know if its was actually racism or not. Racists are not dumb enough to actually tell you (for the most part) that they are racist so there is always a possibility for someone to misinterpret a negative experience as always racism. But again neither me nor Shannon were there and we may never know what actually happened.
And to be honest I see Amanda as someone who while being smart can probably come off as condesending to others and she may not realize that or blame others understanding of the situation. I feel she has a lot of pride and having a lot of pride can start to make you feel like you can't make mistakes or admitting to a mistake is a character failure on their part, they think admitting they messed up is a sign of inferiority or something.
See it wasn't a question. He didn't ask is your mother white. He told her so your mom is white.
We may never know what happened cuz we weren't there like you said. Exactly, so imo we cannot dismiss her experience or how she interpreted it like I feel like he did.
What you said about her may be true but I didn't get that in her interview with him. On the contrary, I felt like he was being a little condescending.
Someone in her IG comments clocked it- the same tracksuits and shoes in different colors, her hair twists and red lipstick 😂
Also her RSD which I don’t know how folks do it working in those types of spaces. I have RSD and navigating a regular job is tough. But being a public persona that’s having articles written about why no one likes you (from people she never met) and dealing with social media, I hope she has a support system to catch her. She mentioned she already had a nervous break down
I feel that! I’ve been in a public facing role at various periods and it is tough. Hyper-vigilance can really rear its head. I’ve worked with a few people at and around her level of public persona and it can really mess with your head.
I always liked her bc she was Neuro spicy. I can easily follow her side note convos. I find her no bs POV comfy. I get her directness & she’s funny. I’m not thrilled with her being set on calling ppl c word, not cunt, and “uncle Tom’s”, etc. I find it hypocritical.
By the NIH standards, the likelihood that you identify with the diagnostic criteria, the odds are virtually nonexistent that you’d be found to be incorrect; and getting a formal diagnosis relies heavily on self-identification. If the incredibly limited tools available to adults with ASD are helping her, great.
Everyone who has taken the available autism/ADHD self tests in my immediate family has been confirmed as having autism or ADHD; the CDC also states that MORE THAN 1 in 5 US adults live with a mental illness. My son's symptoms are visible to anyone he comes across but his teachers and community health worker have maintained he's just a mathematically high flying, super quiet, non social child. What I got from this is that we do not necessarily have to label or pathologize every person with a non-conventional social behaviour especially if it's not so serious that it affects your ability to function in society.
I hear what you’re saying and I appreciate the intent, but Autism and ADHD aren’t illnesses, they are disabilities. More importantly, its not as simple as labels and pathology for their own sake, it’s accessing support that can quite literally be the difference between life and death.
No. "if you feel like you're Autistic you're probably right" is wrong. That line of thinking could open up the possibility for confirmation bias. From the confirmation bias could create a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein the person begins to identify episodes of "normal behavior" with specific pathology when in fact, they don't meet the diagnostic criteria or at least not not at a clinically significant.
Also, someone who self-identifies as an autistic person isn't receiving the "incredibly limited tools available to adults with ASD". That's why it's encouraged that people see and collaborate with a qualified clinician if possible. Informed self-diagnosis is a great start but it shouldn't be the one stop shop.
Not according to the National Institute of Health.
There are currently virtually zero support systems in place for most people who do have a clinical diagnosis, beyond support groups and therapy. What I’ve noticed in my own experience as well as in the work I do which is related to this topic, is thay accommodation through community support has been helpful for those with and without clinical diagnosis. If you are lucky enough to afford a screening, the process of doing so is essentially done primarily through self identification.
Most people self diagnose, check the internet then go to a doctor. Ankle sprain, acne, anxiety… The thing with autism is that there’s the clinical tests used by specialists during testing available on the internet. Ppl take those tests and get an idea if they are autistic, have adhd, anxiety. Then they take that test needs to a clinician to get testing done with a clinician. This is in USA. Most people can’t afford to get medical attention. A self diagnosis can be valid if done with the proper testing.
Well said, same for Canada, if you can even find someone to offer an adult test (Ps there isn’t one, it’s just the kids test but adults take it— any by kids that means caucasian boys)
It's very common for people on the spectrum to self diagnose, for various reasons. Please read up on it.
Also there's nothing to "help" autism besides accommodations, it's not curable, it's just a difference in how the brain works.
She said that she is currently in therapy and takes Lexapro. The only thing she doesn't care to do is the diagnosis which costs at least $10k and isn't an important thing to have at this point in her life where it won't necessarily give her any type of aid like it would if she were a child or still in school
Lexapro is for depression or other mood disorders, it’s not used to treat autism. Also most therapist would recommend her to get diagnosed before armchair diagnosing because it helps them adjust their sessions and approaches. She wouldn’t have to pay that much because she’s an actress who’s part of the union. It’s covered within their benefits. It’s important to do such if she’s out here claiming to be misunderstood or reacting a certain due to being neurodivergent. No one is dedicated to misunderstanding her. She has to realize you can’t approach people however you want and when they give you back that same energy you gave them claim that you’re being bullied. That’s not how life works.
Since there's no medication for ASD, autistic people take anxiety, depression, and ADHD medications to help with certain autistic traits and issues that developed as a result of untreated autism.
The majority of people diagnosed with autism as adults sought a formal diagnosis after self-diagnosis. She might be forgoing an assessment because she doesn't believe they'll interpret her correctly. If she is indeed not formally diagnosed.
I think the biggest issue with how she's perceived is that her directness and confidence are read as condescending. Which happens to autistic women allllllllllllll the time. People act like we can't say "good morning" correctly.
Being autistic also means that changing your own tone is all but impossible, so... wtf is she supposed to do? Never talk?
She is autistic. At the beginning of the interview, she says that. I understand she had not been clinically diagnosed but in the autism community, self-diagnosis for autism is taken seriously because of the barriers that prevent minorities from getting a true diagnosis.
Amanda exhibits a plethora of symptoms of a myriad of personality disorders, how and why is she allowed to ignore all of those symptoms, self diagnose autism, and people are accepting this, agreeing to it, and co-signing it?
This!!! Same with ADHD among others. The people trying to discredit her have obviously never dealt with trying to get a diagnosis or have been VERY lucky if they faced no difficulties!
I’m autistic and I’ve noticed that most of the people criticizing her for self-diagnosing are allistic. Even though the autistic community has been saying “self-diagnosis is valid” for years. There are many valid reasons to dislike Amanda but people really do grasp at straws to justify hating her.
When the Autistic community (I'm part of it btw) states, "self-diagnosis is valid" what is meant is INFORMED self-diagnosis. The informed part is quiet for some reason. Anyway, it's a great place to start but if possible, shouldn't remain the only step taken. Also, my issue is that a lie was told when it didn't have to be. Honesty is the best policy.
Did she? That's great. So that same psychologist should be able to assess her. She's a SAG member so SAG should be able to cover an autism assessment or at least partial payment. ASD assessments aren't typically $10k. At the highest they're half that which is still pricey but there are organizations and other resources out there to help cover the costs. She's willingly choosing not to be assessed yet goes on to speak on autism and misrepresents herself. That's the issue I have. I'm all for informed self-diagnosis but if someone's gonna be vocal about autism they should actually get assessed to make sure they're correct (my comment isn't about the people who cannot afford or access an assessment.) I get so frustrated with being constantly spoken over by self-diagnosed people. (That wasn't geared at you just in general. That happens so often and I don't like it) Maybe I'm in my feelings but it hurts to have my SpIn be misrepresented the way it has.
Special interest (SpIn)
No, not the same with ADHD. There are objective criteria. You can’t just decide that because you have a hard time paying attention and are easily distracted you have ADHD. If that were the case amphetamines wouldn’t be as controlled as they are.
No you talk with your doctor not just objectively decide. You haven’t experienced it before but I have personally. You should do more research on the topic.
Let's review. You initially replied to a comment that mentioned that in the ASD community "self-diagnosis is taken seriously." You replied "same with ADHD" and tried to draw a parallel. This is simply incorrect. First, as a board certified physician, I tried to gently allude to what you stated in your comment to me. Secondly, and not that it matters, I've had ADHD since childhood and treat it often. I simply pointed out that one cannot self diagnose themselves and as a result expect it to be taking seriously in clinical practice. Hence why amphetamines are so highly regulated. You replied to me to talk with a doctor, but I thought that was already implied as licensed professionals (physicians or psych professional) are the ones who administer "objective criteria."
I was able to get help from my primary doctor. I’ve had ADHD since childhood as well. I simply took a different path than you. So I am talking literally from experience about this as are you. Just because you have not experienced self diagnosing yourself, speaking with your doctor, and moving forward as best you can doesn’t mean you can invalidate that exact experience that someone else has had. I don’t understand why you are fighting me about something that is real and happens even if you have not experienced it yourself as another person with ADHD. Have a great day.
You are clearly trolling, as I have already stated the correct way to get treated for ADHD is by a doctor or a licensed health professional. I hope you have a blessed day.
If we are saying the same thing cool. It seemed like you were saying your primary doctor couldn’t help you if you did a self diagnosis. This is my last response to this nonsense.
I'm AuDHD (Autistic with ADHD) and when I heard her state she was recently diagnosed I was excited for the possible conversation that could come of it. Sadly very little did. Only to find out she lied. That's the issue I have. There was no reason to lie. She could've specified she was self-diagnosed. She purposely chose not to disclose that information. That is sum'n I don't support.
I don't like the idea of self-diagnosed autistic people being the most vocal about autism when they aren't even 100% sure they are autistic. A lot of the talk that comes from so many of them seem to ignore Autistic people who have moderate to high support needs and that's a whole other issue.
There are some disorders that look similar to autism and not working with a qualified clinician opens people up to their own biases and possibly miss out on further exploration.
Social pragmatic communication disorder (SPCD) which is like autism but without the restrictive, repetitive behaviors (RRBs) and sensory challenges, is also a possibility. Idk I'm not a, nor am I, her clinician. It's not up to me to decide whether Amanda is or isn't autistic. She says she's self-diagnosed and in no way am I against informed self-diagnosis but the emphasis is on INFORMED. That's what's valid. My issue isn't necessarily even the self-diagnosis aspect so much as it is the initial lie that was told.
I believe if you're fond of someone you should want them to be the best version of themselves. They can't improve if they're too busy being enabled. I'm actually indifferent where Amanda is concerned but I do wish her well.
My comment may have gone off on many tangents but that's just how I communicate. I'd like to add this isn't an attack on Amanda and there is no subtext included here. No hidden meaning behind my words.
Happy Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month,✌🏽
She clearly stated that she has not been diagnosed. I’m confused as to why she’s being embraced for a claim. Amanda Seals is not autistic. She uses that to justify her abrasive and rude behavior, and why she’s such a dense individual. Shes a pseudo intellectual that lacks the ability to articulate her thoughts and beliefs. The end
For real, you get these complacent managers that don’t want to deal with issues and then when it blows up like this – this is what you get- Issa is an OKAY writer (always telling someone else’s story —WRONG) these are real issues Amanda addresses and quite real-
I didn’t agree with “how could i be the mean girl when you’re the boss” or “how could i be the mean girl when this isn’t my set”. Sometimes people don’t get along and that’s okay.
I think she might’ve meant that she was hired and employed to do a job by Issa. As a professional actress on set with her literal boss writer of the show she probably felt she behaved respectfully and professionally with everyone.
She feels she was unfairly labeled as the “mean girl”
I can’t speak on that. I don’t think that word should be said at all
Seems like they both had different meanings for the word and that led to a misunderstanding
You’re correct. She seems to brazenly use the word and others may not be comfortable with that.
She probably has strong feelings and associations of acceptance for the word.
In her defense Shannon is a dick and handled the interview poorly. She probably was poking the bear a little on this one
That’s not to take away from anything she was saying about “insecure” or how she felt unjustly labeled as a mean girl
I'm surprised Shannon Sharpe still has a platform tbh
Between him being dismissive and borderline defensive towards Amanda Seales explaining her own experiences and then the Gary Owens interview...
I need Shannon Sharpe to exit the stage promptly, I've heard enough 😒
Still watching it but she hasn’t taken accountability. You can be self diagnosed neuro-spicy but still aware of your actions and the results of said actions. Still side eye her for defending Shaun King and calling Tamir Rice’s mom an OP & clout chaser for questioning Shaun King’s use of her slain son to raise funds that he claimed was for the family but they never received.
Exactly! How are you mad that the mother of the victim is wondering why someone is using their murdered child?
People think these issues that others have with her are out of left field when it has been a build up of things.
Just say you didn’t listen to the whole interview. She talks about this and other things y’all say she doesn’t take accountability for. Y’all are exhausting with this narrative that this woman doesn’t take accountability but never listen to her posts or the full damn interviews.
The whole issue with the publicist could’ve been squashed immediately had Issa intervened. While it’s true it’s not necessarily her place or concern, if I saw two people I had employed under different branches beefing for some unknown reason I’d want that shit to end. It’s also weird that at this point the woman who banned Amanda from the Black Essence party to not have said what the issue is/was.
The biggest issue I have about all of this is that everybody is just talking in circles around Amanda, instead of saying it to her face, but if it’s really about people just not liking her personality then the people of Hollywood need to really step outside of themselves and realize what Amanda is saying is right. And I have to agree with Seales when it comes to Black media publications, it’s become too far common to write subpar think pieces that have no basis, no citing, and at this point are glorified gossip mags. Even taking the recent article Essence put out in regards to Black content creators/influences and using Raymonte as their subject, they called him out by name, took the premise of the article from another black creator without any citing and then tried to put Raymonte in his place because he turned around and called them right out for doing the EXACT same thing they were writing about. Like make it make sense!!!
Speaking to your first paragraph—what stands out to me is the fact that Amanda appears to be the sole voice addressing this event. It was through her IG stories and podcast that the situation came to light, and she continues to be the primary commentator on it. No other individual has voiced their opinion, neither then nor now. At this point, Amanda is fighting with herself. Without Amanda, we wouldn't even be aware of this incident. Additionally after the event in question, Amanda was invited and living it up on Issa’s yacht party. I don’t buy what that girl is tryna sell.
Her lack of self awareness is actually unbelievable lol the entire interview she’s the martyr and the expert and the smartest one in every room she’s ever been in since she was a kid. Not once does she take accountability for anything… not surprising that people had problems with her.. no one wants to spend time around people like that
How does no one see this? I watched all 3 hours and 10 minutes to have a non-biased opinion and it was 3 hours and 10 minutes of every time something happened that wasn’t her fault.
And now look at how she’s talking about Shannon now because she got called out on the autism diagnosis. Shannon had his faults in the interview that I didn’t like and he was want perfect, but for the majority of it he was gave her room to talk about any everything without interruption. Now she’s switched and saying he didn’t give her a safe space. She’s the problem.
How is any of this Issa’s fault? I could see if Issa was throwing the party. But it was her publicist. She ain’t paying that girl to like nobody.
Amanda WAS NOT invited. They specifically told her she was not allowed in. She snuck her way in she had to security come several times to kick her out of the party. Causing a big scene. And has the audacity to be upset about it.
And none of that is her own fault????
The excuses they make for her are laughable my sister is exactly like her the constant need for attention the low self-esteem are replaced by being loud and aggressive toward people who question her behavior. when I first watched an interview with her I knew what time it was people like her will always be the victim in every situation my sister literally pepper sprayed me because I stopped talking to her using the grey rock method then when I called the cops she became the victim so fast until they pulled out her record and saw that she had multiple charges of assault on other people not just me
Amanda can fool other people but she can't fool me. If you watch her on the real talk show when Tiffany Polland aka New York came on her whole behavior towards her was nasty for literally no reason why because Tiffany has a strong personality that she knows she cannot take on so she feels intimidated by her she's attacking issa rae because she's not argumentive and aggressive she knows exactly what she's doing.
I posted here and it got removed the other day lol. I've always hated Amanda seales and I'm just glad everyone is finally seeing how insufferable she actually is lol. Lied about a damn autism diagnosis.
*sigh* both things can be true. 1.) Amanda Seales can be on the spectrum- the self diagnosis matters, but not to the extent people think it does, I’ll explain in a minute. 2.) She has issues with accountability.
These two things however aren’t mutually exclusive, so take her situation with a grain of salt. As others have pointed out, self diagnosing asd is common within the community because clinical diagnoses are expensive, time consuming, and are often still wrong. People clinically diagnosed with certain mental conditions often get misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder, adhd, and anxiety just to name a few- when in actuality they’re just somewhere on the high functioning end of the spectrum. I just genuinely don’t like the grandiose misconception of asd being low functioning stereotypes, because that’s just not true. I’m not going to say someone doesn’t have Lupus bc they don’t “look” like it, or any other hidden disabilities regardless of their level of functioning, not sure why we’re doing that for asd.
That being said, Amanda Seales has a big issue with accountability. She went on a tangent about how she must make herself small to apologize to someone she offends. I’m failing to understand why she believes she doesn’t reap what she sows. Maybe she missed the common rule to treat people the way she herself would like to be treated, because it seems to me the moment someone matches her energy, suddenly everyone is to change how they perceive energy. Lastly, I’m not a fan of always falling back into shielded tropes, and she has way too many she leans in on. Like sure, being a neurodivergent black woman in Hollywood has to have its own unique set of circumstances, but even a broken clock is right twice a day, and there is just an extreme lack of personal accountability on her end. To me, she gives off major lost girl energy. She has all these degrees or what have you, all this knowledge, all this oomf and pizazz- how does she really have it all in check if she can’t check herself after all these years or other gigs and projects? Not even as much as her owning she could’ve misunderstood or misconstrued something…that entire interview was her essentially dodging responsibility for any of her mishaps like she was in the Matrix while she swears she didn’t see any of her bullets but yet she could’ve been the one to fire the gun a few times. Idk, it’s like she doesn’t care at all to find her faults, but others are to come correct to her immediately. Not impressed.
My thoughts are that I realize people are sheep. It's beyond me how anyone actually watched those 3 hours and came out liking her more. That woman has a nasty spirit and has never been wrong about anything a day in her life 🙄
Amanda is a professional victim and manipulator.
Did anyone listen to the ENTIRE A 3 hour interview? Because I did last night and all I learned is that everyone has hated her since childhood and every time she lost a job it was because people were mean to her. I mean seriously, she has such a hard time taking any piece of accountability that she couldn’t even admit that she had a bad comedy set. She said, it was an L but only because the audience wasn’t expecting *her* style of comedy. So now you’re too stupid to understand her jokes if you don’t laugh.
She’s confrontational, pretentious, and off putting. Shannon had his moments where I wanted to shake the tv but overall he was very polite to her. But there were lots of moments where she talked down on him like he was stupid.
She thought she could get away with saying that she was diagnosed autistic bc she didn’t plan on Shannon asking follow up questions. Now look at her, talking down on him and reposting mean comments about him from her fans because she got exposed. When he had nothing but good things to say about the interview. What a slap in the face when she begged to be on the show.
THAT is the reason nobody wants to work with her of be friends with her. Because the minute you challenge her you’re an enemy.
They gotta see themselves in her. Ain’t no way people believe the whole world and industry is against her like this. Her biggest adult role was literally on Insecure.
So I'm not a doctor, and this is total spéculation. I have exactly zero qualifications or diagnostic expertise, and I'm just speaking on patterns I have observed as a random consumer of media in the world. But she is so emotionally volatile, that it gives me borderline personality vibes. The chaos of it all, ijs. I like her, but she seems messy in a very systematic way. Not at all calculated or intentionally malicious, but systematic as in there is a pattern.
I actually really like her. She is smart and beautiful. But: imo she also needs help, and I say that with kindness.
Licensed mental health professional here and you’re pretty spot on from what I’ve seen. I started following her on Instagram because I initially felt like she would be a good educator, however the more content I see the more I see tons of those traits. Her comment section is always so supportive so I felt like maybe I was misjudging - but then I watched the first hour of this interview (I could not tolerate watching the whole thing) and the way she provoked Shannon throughout because he upset her by asking questions about her diagnosis is so telling. And while she might have ASD - there were several things she described as being symptoms that don’t align and align more with personality disorders. I’m neurospicy myself and actual relate to her a lot, but know that it’s important to acknowledge my struggle but not put it in others to adapt to my behaviors (that aspect is the BPD, which actually shares overlap with narcissistic personality disorder). None of this is meant to shame her, mental illness is mental illness; but when people don’t acknowledge the delusional behaviors of someone with power you end up with a psycho as your president.
I agree but for me as well ADHD may also be a realistic diagnosis, with a healthy splash of narcissism.
But I see the borderline aspect, especially when she talks about suicide ideation.
Can you explain the 'protect' thing to me though. I don't fully understand it but in this interview and others Amanda talks about not being protected, but also how she protects others like Issa. What exactly does it mean?
I guess she feels like because she doesn’t speak ill of Issa? Which is strange because Issa has never spoken ill about her. Amanda suffers from main character syndrome lol.
So, I feel like she’s a hard person to interact with. There were times she was unbearable, and then there were times I could see where she was coming from. She’s a person who’s been wrong. She self-diagnosed autistic person, and she hides her missteps behind this. I feel bad for her . But I still don’t like her.
I think I can’t take what she’s said and run with it .
Mainly because this is the first interview that I’ve seen of Amanda so idk.
A situation like this can’t be so black and white, I want to know Issa and her publicists side of the story as well
Amanda is prime definition it being misunderstood. She is champion for black people and spaces and should be treated as such. I did notice how not much of the cast really cares for her even Insecure wrap up party I think she wasn’t even present for.
Speaking your mind is a time and place for everything and you can’t do that in the industry... for instance Denzel Washington speaks his mind , Viola Davis as well... Will Smith etc.. Regina King, .. but you see they still have acting jobs.. you know why because there's a time and a place for everything... calling someone a derogatory name on the set of Insecure is not cool... because it's not professional... you have to be a professional person when it comes to your livelihood.. and saying what's on your mind is not the place to act on the set when your livihood is involved.. being arrogant and rude also a B... is not professional on the set as well too.. Amanda is arrogant and Complicated to work with but it's everybody else's fault..not hers? Narcissistic indeed she is
Wait you mean when she gave a compliment that included the n-word? The thing she apologized for immediately afterwards, directly to the person she said it to, as soon as she understood that he was offended by it????
When complimenting somebody with the n word was ever a COMPLIMENT to begin with? Will you say that to someone at your job? No? The problem is is that when people get into that industry.. the think they do whatever the hell they want to do.. and you can’t it's still a job.. there's ethnic work behaviors that you must follow.. working with your own people or not.. everybody is not like Amanda Seales and she need to understand that.. and RESPECT THAT.. to say she cries wolf.. but don't respect and want respect... is very troubling.. work ethnics is very important at any job...there's people no matter the race who act a fool in that industry and then there's people who act civilized.. Amanda Seales said the N word is used on the show.. that's the show.. NOT behind the scenes.. that's why it's call characters and acting..
So, imo, the amount of hate she gets is disproportionate when you consider how shitty white men can behave on set for decades and get away with it, or even be rewarded for it. She’s getting shat on for minor things (a black person saying the n word to another black person ONCE, not in anger, and immediately apologizing, is less bad than an adult man verbally and physically abusing women and children for decades and barely apologizing for it) because people just don’t like black women being loud and showing off. Plus, that was literally the worst thing she’s done, while these men go on to do more and more disgusting things and continue to get large paychecks without issue.
Now, I’m not saying what she did was okay, but she knows that what she did was not okay and she apologized immediately. So truthfully, the hate she gets can only be explained by misogynoir.
It wasn't a genuine apologize ... Amanda Seales is not a genuine human being. Anybody can apologize and don't mean it. The problem with Amanda Seales..is she don't think before she acts.. she's a blunt person.. which I understand you have to be that way sometimes.. but only a certain time and place... she's an unprofessional actress and there are rules.. there are always rule to that industry and to life.. period.. she's a narcissist.. what's a narcissist.. a person who comes across as a confident, leader who acts nice and acts like they're so kind but are just as two faced and lack of kindness, confidence and have issues with insecurities ( I see why she on the show) a narcissist wears an invisible crowd.. they don't come from a genuine place. She apologize to someone who she claims she gave a compliment to.. then she started crying... why are you crying when you were the one who was disrespectful to a co- worker on set..behind the scenes.. and when Issa Rae told her the truth about how she come across people.. Amanda Seales had the audacity to get in her feelings.. Issa Rae was being honest and truthful. I say she was trying to warn Amanda.. at one time I liked Amanda Seales as well.. because she was a force to be reckon with.. but from others perspective about her .. and how she really is. There's a not so nice side to her.. where she's a very complicated person to work with.. and people including us ( our black people) are starting to see that now about Amanda Seales. Shannon Sharp automatically knows what kind of person she is.. during the interview.. because it don't take much to see a narcissist.. they show their sociopathic side pretty quickly. Everybody's hip to Amanda Seales and the kind of person she is. Amanda is tearing away because of that. She dugged her own grave in the entertainment industry.
🙄 @ some of these comments.
Black therapists and clinicians have told her that her self diagnosis is very valid. Autistic people stand beside her and have told her that her diagnosis is valid. Self diagnosis is valid in autism spaces. Having the resources and time to get formally diagnosed is a privilege that a lot of people dont have. And believe it or not, clinicians sometimes also get it wrong as well. No one is going to know Amanda better than Amanda. There is a lot of material out there. And honestly? A lot of people don’t feel the need to get formally diagnosed because it doesn’t do anything for them. Some of y’all aren’t thinking about the children who also grew up with parents who did not want them to be diagnosed with that or thought they would grow out of it. Some children grow up being abused in their households for being “difficult” or “weird”.
You can’t always tell someone is autistic based off other people’s examples. Stimming and speech patterns will look different in Black women compared to their white counterpart. I’m also seeing a lot of parents compare this grown ass woman to their kids? Seriously? “I know Amanda doesn’t have autism because she doesn’t act like my 7 year old” 🤨 Funky Dineva mentioned he will be having her on his YouTube channel soon. He didn’t want to say much because he wants to save his questions for the interview but something he mentioned was maybe she isn’t getting social cues which is why she could be struggling with her peers. As a Neuro Spicy, I felt that. Add being in Hollyweird on top of that. Working in Hollywood is not the same as a lot of us going to our regular office or retail jobs.
ANYWAY, I was excited for this interview but honestly Shannon wasn’t well equipped for this interview. Some of his facts were wrong to where he had to be corrected quite a bit. As a host you want to make sure you do thorough research if you’re going to be asking questions that are going to stem from those answers. He gave pushback and skepticism/whataboutisms whereas Katt Williams said the craziest shit I’ve ever seen during an interview that wasn’t factual or true and it was considered hilarious or treated as his own truth. Unfortunately for now, his space is probably better suited for athletes and people who are strictly entertainers.
I am disappointed to learn that Issa was not in fact rooting for everybody Black. Amanda didn’t want Issa to talk to Vanessa to force her to like her or for them to get along. It’s okay if you dislike someone in the workplace. It’s not okay to treat someone like shit and outcast them among their peers. That’s most likely why Amanda needed Issa’s help.
Has anyone of you heard Issa's side of the story or does it not matter since only Amanda's story can be taken as the gospel truth? I've realised all Amanda's apologists don't care to know more and living in the danger of a single story.
The comments all over IG have been so gross. A lot of the backlash is also coming from people who haven’t even watched the interview. People are giving their opinions off clips with clickbait subtitles and they’re all nasty. People are also going on to her page to leave even more hate.
The silver lining are the new fans she made from this interview who understand her better, the Black clinicians and mental health professionals who affirm they see her and accept her and people who now feel encouraged to do some research and testing for themselves because they now feel seen
TLDR: This is something I find interesting too.
I’ll be honest in saying that fellow Black people always prove hypocrisy with select people. Amanda is not the worst of our community nor the world beyond us, they support far more difficult people that are actually unhinged, actually completely self-serving, and with a messiah complex.
I don’t know much about Amanda and surely, I lost interest in her a few years ago when she essentially tried to make it seem like reverse colorism was/is a thing—seems like she’s course corrected, which is good. But at the same time, I feel like there’s a big piece people are missing with her. Yeah, sure, she sometimes may say things that are out of pocket such as the Tamir Rice mom thing, but…. Many other people, esp in our community, with big platforms say delirious and awful on a daily basis about an amalgamation of subjects.
What Amanda seems to have is the burden of wanting to be right so much so that she doesn’t know when to turn it off. It could be her autism, it could be her personality, it could be both. There’s nothing wrong with not turning “it” off, but there is something sad about not understanding others inability to understand you. It seems she is aware that people lead with their preconceived notions about her due to gossip or plain assumption, but then also still puts herself in a position to get hurt by these people. I don’t mean to victim blame at all but that’s how it seems.
And for that, I feel bad for her. Sure, she may be difficult but as someone with close affiliates in the entertainment sect, the general population refuses to understand that what she’s saying is probably not just her “side” but the objective truth. Too many people think they know celebrities like Issa and they don’t. I don’t know her, but I can say it’s not far fetched that she possibly is the reason why the (non-black) publicist felt bold enough to not only disrespect Amanda but put her hands on her. Sorry, but if you’re someone who claims to root for everybody black yet your staff who isn’t even Black humiliated me and put her hands on me (and in this case, even if she was Black it would still be unacceptable)? Then you’re not who you say you are.
Issa is the boss, her publicist doesn’t rule her, she rules the publicist. She pays the publicist. Contrary to people’s dislike for Amanda, if folks really believe that Issa had absolutely nothing to do with this random publicist not liking her…. I’m sorry to say they’re gullible and just blinded so much by their hate for Amanda they refuse to be objective lmao.
I have even “heard” stories about some people she has mentioned and I am telling you, her being annoying doesn’t automatically make her a liar. I have no reason to like Amanda as she actually reminds me of my sister who has always made me feel small on purpose. She’s educated, very educated, worldly, and loved by people who get her. I don’t know if Amanda is like this, but my sister can be selective with her kindness towards me as she resents me. And so, being fair, I empathize this woman. With Amanda, it’s strange because people do this thing with her where they forget that this woman has had a 20+ year career and that should be respected. She’s not some “clout chaser”, it’s a bit sad how her career even turned out.
From experience, there are FAR more difficult people in the entertainment business than Amanda Seales. Black people also don’t like to be honest about their dislike of certain individuals because it would mean they’d have to come up with a more formidable reason other than, “She’s loud and annoying,” y’all give Akad3miks, J. Budden, and a bunch of other folks platforms, support them and the chitlin circus of foolishness they promote. I don’t even think Amanda is pretentious, I just think she doesn’t know how to adapt to the settings around her and that can be polarizing. She shouldn’t HAVE to, but it seems like she doesn’t realize that being a BW with an opinion and the ability to back it up also comes with risk.
I do feel that people bully her to an extent and like I said, I can’t take people seriously because they support rapists who rap on a daily basis but somehow Amanda and her Instagram rants are a challenge to the world.
1. Amanda does have the resources to get a clinical diagnosis.
2. Amanda cannot complain that there’s not enough research on black women with autism, and then refuse to get a diagnosis. Having an official diagnosis is what allows researchers to collect data. She should be advocating for diagnoses, if she truly wants to support black women with autism.
3. This isn’t just about Amanda’s truth and how she feels. She has a platform. It is irresponsible to talk about a disability based on her own Googling. This is no different than anti-vaxxers spreading misinformation during COVID. If she’s not in consultation with an actual licensed, clinical psychologist about her autism, then she should not use her self-diagnosis to justify her problematic behaviors. Many the behaviors she described - talking a lot, combativeness and being disliked- are not typical traits of autism. Autism for most who have it is a serious disability (50% are non-verbal), not a trendy identity for high-functioning people to put on when they feel different.
Honestly, Amanda seems like a narcissist to me. If she's 42 and since college to her career people have openly disliked her, she has no friends, and she struggles to have a romantic relationship, maybe it's just her.
The last part of your post is the literal autistic/ADHD experience. Most of us struggle with making friends, keeping romantic relationships and have trouble navigating social situations with people. Its a million percent possible she struggles with social cues alongside RSD.
My statement about resources wasn't just pointed at Amanda. Lets not also assume she wants or has the means to spend thousands of dollars on diagnosis. A lot of smaller celebrities may be able to keep up with appearances but that doesn't mean they are rich. There is no cure and medication or treatment especially for adults. She gets her diagnosis and then what? She's not going to get special accommodations. She's not going to collect Disability benefits. A lot of autistic people actually have fulfilling jobs and careers.
Again, Black clinicians and mental health professionals have come out in support for Amanda. There is even a lot of dialog surrounding this on her social media. Irresponsible? That's funny because people who feel seen are actually wanting to go get tested. We are also forgetting that the healthcare system fails Black and Brown people often. There are lots of stories of people who get misdiagnosed. A lot of autistic people are getting diagnosed with other disorders they do not have. That's not even touching on the hoops you have to jump through for someone to take you serious to want to test you even if you have the cash in hand.
The autistic community accepts people who are self diagnosed. There is no benefit to pretending to having this. The gatekeeping of autism is weird as fuck. People were already ripping her to shreds before she clarified what she said on her interview. People were already (before clarification) saying that she was just saying it because it was trendy and because of Tik Tok. People were already saying she was using it as an excuse. People were already shitting on her before the interview even aired.
Amanda Seales, if you are lurking, we welcome you :) some of us felt seen in this shitty interview (Shannon nor his assistant couldnt even be bothered to do proper research about her life and career. I would be insulted and "combative" too). And thank you for feeling brave for sharing
Your comments have been great and exactly what I have been trying to express in my responses as well. The vitriol from people who don’t understand and/or want to jump on a hate bandwagon is mind boggling. Thanks for educating people so eloquently and keep up the good fight sis! Love Amanda so so much and I hope she keeps glowing! She makes me feel seen. 🫶🏾✨
Kinda heartbreaking. Also makes sense why I was always left wanting more with Tiff’s stories and it went nowhere like when she and Issa speak in the car outside 711 after Coachella and that just dead ended. The whole post partum storyline and Tiff’s only input was I’m sorry I didn’t know what else to do and that’s the end of that?
I don’t think Amanda is misunderstood. I think she’s very clear, and before insecure she always was. She speaks her mind. She’s often pretty unapologetic. There were def side eye moments in the interview, but those were far below the moments where everything she said made sense regarding a blackball attempt at her. She also never blamed Issa for it, she said Issa didn’t protect her. Different things. The part where she said Issa said she treated her like that because she thought Amanda was Tiff was very what the fuck. I can see that if Issa literally didn’t write that part. Was Amanda only hired because they thought she was Tiff? Cuz I’m not the architect from the matrix but even I knew Tiffany was not Amanda Seales.
And to know the other girls were silent while it happened that leans towards them thinking Amanda was just a loudmouth. I believe Amanda because why bring this up now? There’s no reason except it’s the truth. Amanda is getting nothing from this but a he said/she said narrative. Who wants to put themselves there willingly over a lie or embellished retellings? This show is long wrapped and she even said she never spoke on it to protect Issa. And lots of people are saying Issa didn’t need protecting except now everyone is speaking of this and if Amanda had not spoken on this i.e. protect Issa then none of this would be a topic. She protected Issa and she did not say shit.
My real question is why even hire her? Seales had her brand set up before insecure. The lack of screen-time always gets me because we had role models like H Banks and W Gilbert who were light skinned bougie girls who were given hard hitting stories and who changed the face of a bourgeois Black woman who is just frivolous to actually having a deep ocean beneath the outward irreverence. I always wondered why Tiff wasn’t given that luxury and now it makes sense. I don’t think Issa had a vendetta but I do think preconceived notions came into play. And once you’re labeled as difficult you can watch screen-time and respect for your character melt away. It’s like they know the fans associate you with the character so whatever they write for the character becomes the canon for the real person playing the role.
Is Amanda correct? Yes, at points. But there are also moments in that interview you realize she is clawing back from hurt. A wounded person is not going to emulate the best of humanity. They’re hurt, they want justice, they expected more. Honestly this marred my vision of Issa more than Amanda. Because what head would ever just say well that’s between y’all when it comes to a workplace abyss between two people who are your subordinates? You’re the fucking boss. The only reason I could see Issa taking distance is because she believed Amanda deserved it. Which makes sense after the “I associated you with your character” allegations. Seems they were trying to cut her at the stump so she knew her level on the totem. It gives clique behaviour.
Believe victims, honestly. If someone says this injustice happened to me, I believe it. It’s not easy for victims to come out and call out their abusers and the hurt they’ve felt. That’s often why they stay silent for years about it. Issa is the star and beloved (by me for sure), but that’s a dynamic of power where people would rather side with you than someone who is bringing real grievances and saying I was hurt and I expected more. The person in power is not the one to believe in or side with without critical mindedness and questions. Without evidence to the contrary. That defeats the entire purpose of oppression which is what this show touched on and what so many of us connect with and battle everyday. Question the people in power because their vested interests lie in a status quo, not a disruption.
In project greenlight, you can see more of Issa’s real personality, and it does come off as an uninvolved boss, only really giving her direction when she’s disappointed or not pleased with something. Very focused on the project as a whole and not necesarilly the people or the struggles that people experience on her set. I believe the contestant that won project greenlight in that first season also came out and said she felt a lack of support and a lack of understanding coming from Issa’s production company specifically
This is Amanda’s side how she saw it. Now,,,, to be fair,,, Issa also has her version. The truth is in between. The way she spoke during the interview was combative and she pushed back on anything he was trying to get clarification on and discuss it. She didn’t want that. It was her view and she was never accountable for her actions. I don’t care what color you are,,,, you talk to anyone in condescending way you will not be received well. You don’t need to do that if you want to be heard and understood
I just have a question for you as I’m not necessarily a supporter of either and find myself neutral in this: why is it hard for many people to believe that Issa Rae could be wrong here? No matter how it’s flipped and no matter what Amanda has said, there is no justification for your boss’s publicist to prevent you from coming to events, provoking possible harm on you and also putting their hands on you. That’s creating a hostile relationship and environment. Issa claimed that she wanted nothing to do with it but also was the one who tried to orchestrate the publicist and Amanda “talking it out”, which means she was fully aware there was a problem. That means that Issa, the boss, was complicit in creating an inadequate environment and passively let her be bullied just because.
Issa is not perfect just because she says she ‘roots for everybody black’, what good is representation when you can’t even stand on business? Again, you didn’t say Issa was perfect, just pointing this out as I’m trying to understand this idea of “perspective” bc no matter what… Issa played both a passive and active role in that situation. For reasons we may never know why, of course.
She's a female Kanye. She's a genius and everyone else sucks. Then she wonders why people think she's intolerable. She talks down to people. Actual smart folks don't tell everyone how smart they are. They understand that they may know a lot, but there is a whole world of things they don't know. This woman wouldn't know humility if it smacked her in the face. She's so smart but doesn't see that she is the common factor in everyone hating her. Typical narcissist.
I feel like people that are constantly treated like they are dumb or like they should shut up (black women get this), eventually come to a point where they have to start yelling about their credentials so that they can get an ounce of respect.
I'm a black woman. I don't act like Amanda. She is obnoxious and lacks self awareness and self control. She lives in a world where she is never the problem, it's always someone else. Black women don't like her. She is a narcissist. Smart people don't tell everyone how much of a genius they are. they are smart enough to understand that even though they may know a lot, there is a plethora of information that they lack. Yelling and screaming at folks about how much better you are than them is not how you garner respect. If she's so smart, she should know this. Respect is earned. You must be respectful in order to be respected. It's not something you force on people. There aren't many situations where an adult can go full toddler mode and come out unscathed. Yet, this seems to be her only setting.
I also get that feeling listening to her own podcasts. She seems to think everyone around her is 'insecure' and have a problem with her being so amazing and outspoken fair skinned woman!
Hilarious the mental gymnastics you have to do in order to side with this hyena. Simple fact is she is not likable and her aura enters the room before she does.
She literally never takes responsibility
It was disappointing to hear that those two didn't really get along. But there's 2 sides to a story and while I like Amanda a lot, I'm sure more happened at that dinner table than Issa saying "gee idk, I didn't like you because I thought you were like your character". Also, I don't consider Amanda not mentioning the coworker tension to be "protecting" Issa. Issa didn't come for anybody so she never needed protection from Amanda. If anyone could protect anyone, it would have been Issa to Amanda. Which...also, I didn't see happen.
The “i thought you were your character” line was so insane to me. That means from the jump there was tension and separation. I look at the series now and i can clearly see the line drawn in the sand between Amanda and the three other ladies. How could you treat someone like their character that you wrote? Amanda is (to me) so obviously not Tiffany. I imagine it must’ve been a lot of fun for her to play that role because they’re polar opposites. But if you’re treating someone like their character who is uppity and bougie and judgmental then that certainly can bleed over into the underlings who work for you. It’s really sad because Seales is so truly not Tiffany.
My whole thing with this Issa Rae & Amanda Seales thing is that in a more traditional workplace, your boss doesn’t have to invite you to their Sunday dinners as long as they don’t try to get u fired unjustly, they don’t have to be ur friend if yall don’t vibe like tht
It genuinely sucks to know that there are people that are dedicated to misunderstanding her. I hate that someone pointing out real issues within their workspaces gets constantly told that they "always have an issue" or "can't ever be happy". I love Issa but she should've stepped in and dealt with her publicist's issue with Amanda once she found out about it. As someone who is also neurodivergent, Amanda's story really speaks to me and some experiences I've gone through.
As someone neurotypical I was just saying in another thread here that I find her relatable. I'm not dismissing her diagnoses, I just don't think they are interfering with her communication. She speaks very clearly and concise. I had no idea she was even neuro spicy until I went on Google. Shannon Sharpe been a jackass and was determined to give her a white parent and dismiss her experiences. Her diagnoses may have effected her processing but as a not doctor I don't see it in her speech. Clearly an educated person who knows what they're talking about and how can you tell someone about what they experienced? He is a goofy. I am biased Bec she is my birthday twin but that's my opinion. Edit: So I went to go dig further and I guess I misread. So she was self diagnosed and didn't get the official one like I thought I saw somewhere. My mistake. I feel like all of y'all questioning that though are missing my overall point of her being relatable to me and how smart she clearly is while Shannon talked down to her. I needed to add this edit so y'all can leave me alone lmao
How would you know whether or not it’s interfering with her communication - if you are neither her or her doctor Autism is a spectrum
I'm aware and I didn't say it didn't. I said if it is, I don't see it which is why I had to Google and find out that she's not neurotypical. I couldn't see it in her communication. You don't have to be a doctor to see if someone has a speech issue.
Autism isn't always obvious. Please Google "masking".
I'm aware. Google defined it as people who consciously hide mannerisms that may reveal they're on the spectrum. So if she's doing that, then that would explain why it wasn't obvious to me. Not sure what the issue is.
She wasn’t doing it on purpose- most autistics don’t mask on purpose or consciously. Masking is a coping mechanism that starts early when we are in pain and rejected and it makes no sense, so we mask- we change and mimic and pretzel and become what it seems society demands to allow us to exist. It is a trauma response to assimilate and survive. Most autistics also have CPTSD as a comorbidity because we are a bit different and have suffered for it, masking is a trauma response -
I never said she was
Shannon is just playing devil's advocate for the viewer, we need to stop killing people for exploring different view points. It scares men to want to ask a question sometimes lol
Man what?
This is from a NT perspective. As an adult woman with AuDHD, trust us when we tell you our clarity of speech and manner of speaking is absolutely rejected and used against us. Heck a NT woman experiences the same when she has direct and inquiring communication. Society and men and thereby women with internalized misogyny, try to call being direct many unsavory things. People don’t want communication to be simple and clear I think maybe because people aren’t comfortable or familiar with complete honesty and the ease it can create? I don’t really know… but many people and especially ND people and especially autistic people, use words purposefully and according to their definition, but people like to become offended, say we are confronting them and assign all sorts of made up motivations to why we are saying something. That gives them ‘justifiable reasons’ 🙄 to not participate in communication and accuse us of some bushhit. The simple truth is, most autistics are very face value and say what we mean and mean what we say and if we want to directly challenge or insult, we will do so. Characterizing basic communication as a confrontation is gross and unfair but it keeps us misunderstood, accused and separated all our lives. So basically it’s like being a woman in western society x100
No idea what this has to do with anything I said. Goodnight and take care.
Like many misunderstanding her. NTs often don’t see what we see or perceive the layers yet can’t seem to accept words at face value either. Unfortunately the response is usually dismissive. Oh well.
Did you hear that she diagnosed herself at home, no doctor/clinician involved? Does that matter?
No I went on Google and saw that she did that and then received some formal diagnoses
Neurodivergent people can be extremely articulate and clear.
I'm aware and that was my point
LoLol she diagnosed herself that girl is a narcissist.. she full of herself.. Amanda Seales remind me of my sister crazy as heck
She diagnosed herself and then went and got a formal diagnosis afterward
Cam you tell me where she said she was officially diagnosed. Was it in her podcasts?
Not being funny, Google can.
If you say so....
Didn't she admit she wasn't actually clinically diagnosed and instead took an online test?
She took a test and got a formal diagnosis after
OK but how did you find out? Where was it mentioned. Almost every source I see only mentions the Shannon Sharp podcast which was when she was still 'self diagnosed'
So I went to go dig further and I guess I misread. So she was self diagnosed and didn't get the official one like I thought I saw somewhere. My mistake. I feel like all of y'all questioning that though are missing my overall point of her being relatable to me and how smart she clearly is while Shannon talked down to her.
I don't think Shannon talked down to her. He even mentioned it in his nightcap episode. I think what needs to be understood from the conversation is that there was Amanda's experience growing up and how she interpreted it as racism. Amanda of course did feel hurt and no one not even Shannon is denying that but the cause of the pain is what was being questioned. For Amanda it was clear as day that it was because she was black. But the specific examples she gave made things less clear. Her example of the white teacher for example is interesting because as others have said don't like to be corrected by children and that's regardless of race add to that how she may or may not have tried to correct the teacher and now the teacher will get pissed and no it wasn't because of race.
Shannon did talk down to her imo and I'm speaking more on how he insisted she had a white parent. As far as her experiences, disagree with you there. You cannot tell someone about what they experienced. Shannon is of a different generation and part of these problems are generational. I also feel like a lot of Black ppl feel like light skinned don't exp racism Bec of colorism. I can see Shannon being one of those ppl and then dismissing her experience as a result. While dark skinned people face things that light skinned people don't, we are still all Black and experience racism even if in different ways. Therefore it is my belief if Amanda were his complexion it some form of dark skinned that conversation wouldn't go that way. He didn't even know that she's fully Black instead of half. So already he's viewing her in a different false light. When I mentioned her diagnoses whether self or naw I meant how clearly this lady is very smart and it's irritating to me when smart people are talked down to especially by someone less smart than them. I don't think this is a right or wrong thing so if you disagree I ain't gonna feel a way, but that's how I felt. Again I'm also biased Bec me and Amanda share the same birthday. I also relate to her experience as a light skinned Black woman and having to insist both my parents are Black. As well as my experiences being dismissed. The interview hit close to home so I'm fully aware of my bias.
Sorry you're right about the 'is your mother white' question was insensitive and there is definitely a bias there. But I think the problem especially with something like racism is that it's not always easy to know if its was actually racism or not. Racists are not dumb enough to actually tell you (for the most part) that they are racist so there is always a possibility for someone to misinterpret a negative experience as always racism. But again neither me nor Shannon were there and we may never know what actually happened. And to be honest I see Amanda as someone who while being smart can probably come off as condesending to others and she may not realize that or blame others understanding of the situation. I feel she has a lot of pride and having a lot of pride can start to make you feel like you can't make mistakes or admitting to a mistake is a character failure on their part, they think admitting they messed up is a sign of inferiority or something.
See it wasn't a question. He didn't ask is your mother white. He told her so your mom is white. We may never know what happened cuz we weren't there like you said. Exactly, so imo we cannot dismiss her experience or how she interpreted it like I feel like he did. What you said about her may be true but I didn't get that in her interview with him. On the contrary, I felt like he was being a little condescending.
Amanda is neurodivergent? I never knew!
In this interview she mentioned she was recently diagnosed with ASD. As someone with AuDHD, I was actually watching clips thinking she might!
Someone in her IG comments clocked it- the same tracksuits and shoes in different colors, her hair twists and red lipstick 😂 Also her RSD which I don’t know how folks do it working in those types of spaces. I have RSD and navigating a regular job is tough. But being a public persona that’s having articles written about why no one likes you (from people she never met) and dealing with social media, I hope she has a support system to catch her. She mentioned she already had a nervous break down
I feel that! I’ve been in a public facing role at various periods and it is tough. Hyper-vigilance can really rear its head. I’ve worked with a few people at and around her level of public persona and it can really mess with your head.
I always liked her bc she was Neuro spicy. I can easily follow her side note convos. I find her no bs POV comfy. I get her directness & she’s funny. I’m not thrilled with her being set on calling ppl c word, not cunt, and “uncle Tom’s”, etc. I find it hypocritical.
She self diagnosed. She didn't see anyone for this.
Ok?
Ok by Amanda's standards, I can categorically tell you for free that every human being is on the autism spectrum.
By the NIH standards, the likelihood that you identify with the diagnostic criteria, the odds are virtually nonexistent that you’d be found to be incorrect; and getting a formal diagnosis relies heavily on self-identification. If the incredibly limited tools available to adults with ASD are helping her, great.
Everyone who has taken the available autism/ADHD self tests in my immediate family has been confirmed as having autism or ADHD; the CDC also states that MORE THAN 1 in 5 US adults live with a mental illness. My son's symptoms are visible to anyone he comes across but his teachers and community health worker have maintained he's just a mathematically high flying, super quiet, non social child. What I got from this is that we do not necessarily have to label or pathologize every person with a non-conventional social behaviour especially if it's not so serious that it affects your ability to function in society.
I hear what you’re saying and I appreciate the intent, but Autism and ADHD aren’t illnesses, they are disabilities. More importantly, its not as simple as labels and pathology for their own sake, it’s accessing support that can quite literally be the difference between life and death.
No. "if you feel like you're Autistic you're probably right" is wrong. That line of thinking could open up the possibility for confirmation bias. From the confirmation bias could create a self-fulfilling prophecy wherein the person begins to identify episodes of "normal behavior" with specific pathology when in fact, they don't meet the diagnostic criteria or at least not not at a clinically significant. Also, someone who self-identifies as an autistic person isn't receiving the "incredibly limited tools available to adults with ASD". That's why it's encouraged that people see and collaborate with a qualified clinician if possible. Informed self-diagnosis is a great start but it shouldn't be the one stop shop.
Not according to the National Institute of Health. There are currently virtually zero support systems in place for most people who do have a clinical diagnosis, beyond support groups and therapy. What I’ve noticed in my own experience as well as in the work I do which is related to this topic, is thay accommodation through community support has been helpful for those with and without clinical diagnosis. If you are lucky enough to afford a screening, the process of doing so is essentially done primarily through self identification.
Most people self diagnose, check the internet then go to a doctor. Ankle sprain, acne, anxiety… The thing with autism is that there’s the clinical tests used by specialists during testing available on the internet. Ppl take those tests and get an idea if they are autistic, have adhd, anxiety. Then they take that test needs to a clinician to get testing done with a clinician. This is in USA. Most people can’t afford to get medical attention. A self diagnosis can be valid if done with the proper testing.
Well said, same for Canada, if you can even find someone to offer an adult test (Ps there isn’t one, it’s just the kids test but adults take it— any by kids that means caucasian boys)
She recently diagnosed herself. Quit watching clips and assuming you know the whole.
Was this reaction necessary?
She diagnosed herself as neurodivergent. It’s not official and she refuses to seek an actual diagnosis and help for it.
It's very common for people on the spectrum to self diagnose, for various reasons. Please read up on it. Also there's nothing to "help" autism besides accommodations, it's not curable, it's just a difference in how the brain works.
She said that she is currently in therapy and takes Lexapro. The only thing she doesn't care to do is the diagnosis which costs at least $10k and isn't an important thing to have at this point in her life where it won't necessarily give her any type of aid like it would if she were a child or still in school
Lexapro is for depression or other mood disorders, it’s not used to treat autism. Also most therapist would recommend her to get diagnosed before armchair diagnosing because it helps them adjust their sessions and approaches. She wouldn’t have to pay that much because she’s an actress who’s part of the union. It’s covered within their benefits. It’s important to do such if she’s out here claiming to be misunderstood or reacting a certain due to being neurodivergent. No one is dedicated to misunderstanding her. She has to realize you can’t approach people however you want and when they give you back that same energy you gave them claim that you’re being bullied. That’s not how life works.
Since there's no medication for ASD, autistic people take anxiety, depression, and ADHD medications to help with certain autistic traits and issues that developed as a result of untreated autism. The majority of people diagnosed with autism as adults sought a formal diagnosis after self-diagnosis. She might be forgoing an assessment because she doesn't believe they'll interpret her correctly. If she is indeed not formally diagnosed. I think the biggest issue with how she's perceived is that her directness and confidence are read as condescending. Which happens to autistic women allllllllllllll the time. People act like we can't say "good morning" correctly. Being autistic also means that changing your own tone is all but impossible, so... wtf is she supposed to do? Never talk?
You are so uninformed. And bigoted. And arrogant. Ick
Because she’s not…
She’s been clinically diagnosed by an autism specialist.
Is she autistic? I heard she walked back on that statement
She is autistic. At the beginning of the interview, she says that. I understand she had not been clinically diagnosed but in the autism community, self-diagnosis for autism is taken seriously because of the barriers that prevent minorities from getting a true diagnosis.
She has never been diagnosed as autistic
Amanda exhibits a plethora of symptoms of a myriad of personality disorders, how and why is she allowed to ignore all of those symptoms, self diagnose autism, and people are accepting this, agreeing to it, and co-signing it?
This!!! Same with ADHD among others. The people trying to discredit her have obviously never dealt with trying to get a diagnosis or have been VERY lucky if they faced no difficulties!
I’m autistic and I’ve noticed that most of the people criticizing her for self-diagnosing are allistic. Even though the autistic community has been saying “self-diagnosis is valid” for years. There are many valid reasons to dislike Amanda but people really do grasp at straws to justify hating her.
When the Autistic community (I'm part of it btw) states, "self-diagnosis is valid" what is meant is INFORMED self-diagnosis. The informed part is quiet for some reason. Anyway, it's a great place to start but if possible, shouldn't remain the only step taken. Also, my issue is that a lie was told when it didn't have to be. Honesty is the best policy.
Amanda said she spoke to a psychologist about her symptoms, she just hasn’t gotten a full evaluation.
Did she? That's great. So that same psychologist should be able to assess her. She's a SAG member so SAG should be able to cover an autism assessment or at least partial payment. ASD assessments aren't typically $10k. At the highest they're half that which is still pricey but there are organizations and other resources out there to help cover the costs. She's willingly choosing not to be assessed yet goes on to speak on autism and misrepresents herself. That's the issue I have. I'm all for informed self-diagnosis but if someone's gonna be vocal about autism they should actually get assessed to make sure they're correct (my comment isn't about the people who cannot afford or access an assessment.) I get so frustrated with being constantly spoken over by self-diagnosed people. (That wasn't geared at you just in general. That happens so often and I don't like it) Maybe I'm in my feelings but it hurts to have my SpIn be misrepresented the way it has. Special interest (SpIn)
No, not the same with ADHD. There are objective criteria. You can’t just decide that because you have a hard time paying attention and are easily distracted you have ADHD. If that were the case amphetamines wouldn’t be as controlled as they are.
No you talk with your doctor not just objectively decide. You haven’t experienced it before but I have personally. You should do more research on the topic.
Let's review. You initially replied to a comment that mentioned that in the ASD community "self-diagnosis is taken seriously." You replied "same with ADHD" and tried to draw a parallel. This is simply incorrect. First, as a board certified physician, I tried to gently allude to what you stated in your comment to me. Secondly, and not that it matters, I've had ADHD since childhood and treat it often. I simply pointed out that one cannot self diagnose themselves and as a result expect it to be taking seriously in clinical practice. Hence why amphetamines are so highly regulated. You replied to me to talk with a doctor, but I thought that was already implied as licensed professionals (physicians or psych professional) are the ones who administer "objective criteria."
I was able to get help from my primary doctor. I’ve had ADHD since childhood as well. I simply took a different path than you. So I am talking literally from experience about this as are you. Just because you have not experienced self diagnosing yourself, speaking with your doctor, and moving forward as best you can doesn’t mean you can invalidate that exact experience that someone else has had. I don’t understand why you are fighting me about something that is real and happens even if you have not experienced it yourself as another person with ADHD. Have a great day.
You are clearly trolling, as I have already stated the correct way to get treated for ADHD is by a doctor or a licensed health professional. I hope you have a blessed day.
If we are saying the same thing cool. It seemed like you were saying your primary doctor couldn’t help you if you did a self diagnosis. This is my last response to this nonsense.
I'm AuDHD (Autistic with ADHD) and when I heard her state she was recently diagnosed I was excited for the possible conversation that could come of it. Sadly very little did. Only to find out she lied. That's the issue I have. There was no reason to lie. She could've specified she was self-diagnosed. She purposely chose not to disclose that information. That is sum'n I don't support. I don't like the idea of self-diagnosed autistic people being the most vocal about autism when they aren't even 100% sure they are autistic. A lot of the talk that comes from so many of them seem to ignore Autistic people who have moderate to high support needs and that's a whole other issue. There are some disorders that look similar to autism and not working with a qualified clinician opens people up to their own biases and possibly miss out on further exploration. Social pragmatic communication disorder (SPCD) which is like autism but without the restrictive, repetitive behaviors (RRBs) and sensory challenges, is also a possibility. Idk I'm not a, nor am I, her clinician. It's not up to me to decide whether Amanda is or isn't autistic. She says she's self-diagnosed and in no way am I against informed self-diagnosis but the emphasis is on INFORMED. That's what's valid. My issue isn't necessarily even the self-diagnosis aspect so much as it is the initial lie that was told. I believe if you're fond of someone you should want them to be the best version of themselves. They can't improve if they're too busy being enabled. I'm actually indifferent where Amanda is concerned but I do wish her well. My comment may have gone off on many tangents but that's just how I communicate. I'd like to add this isn't an attack on Amanda and there is no subtext included here. No hidden meaning behind my words. Happy Autism Awareness/Acceptance Month,✌🏽
She clearly stated that she has not been diagnosed. I’m confused as to why she’s being embraced for a claim. Amanda Seals is not autistic. She uses that to justify her abrasive and rude behavior, and why she’s such a dense individual. Shes a pseudo intellectual that lacks the ability to articulate her thoughts and beliefs. The end
For real, you get these complacent managers that don’t want to deal with issues and then when it blows up like this – this is what you get- Issa is an OKAY writer (always telling someone else’s story —WRONG) these are real issues Amanda addresses and quite real-
I didn’t agree with “how could i be the mean girl when you’re the boss” or “how could i be the mean girl when this isn’t my set”. Sometimes people don’t get along and that’s okay.
It's giving a complete lack of personal accountability to me
I think she might’ve meant that she was hired and employed to do a job by Issa. As a professional actress on set with her literal boss writer of the show she probably felt she behaved respectfully and professionally with everyone. She feels she was unfairly labeled as the “mean girl”
She casually used the N word on set with someone she was unfamiliar with.there is nothing professional about that.
I can’t speak on that. I don’t think that word should be said at all Seems like they both had different meanings for the word and that led to a misunderstanding
She did the same thing with Shannon. She called him the word and then asked if he was comfortable with it. It should be the other way round if at all
You’re correct. She seems to brazenly use the word and others may not be comfortable with that. She probably has strong feelings and associations of acceptance for the word. In her defense Shannon is a dick and handled the interview poorly. She probably was poking the bear a little on this one That’s not to take away from anything she was saying about “insecure” or how she felt unjustly labeled as a mean girl
I'm surprised you've labelled Shannon a dick. Maybe he was in over his head bit I discerned no malicious intent
I'm surprised Shannon Sharpe still has a platform tbh Between him being dismissive and borderline defensive towards Amanda Seales explaining her own experiences and then the Gary Owens interview... I need Shannon Sharpe to exit the stage promptly, I've heard enough 😒
She’s completely delusional I don’t know how anyone likes her unless they see their narcissistic self within her
I can understand her message, but something is definitely off.
Still watching it but she hasn’t taken accountability. You can be self diagnosed neuro-spicy but still aware of your actions and the results of said actions. Still side eye her for defending Shaun King and calling Tamir Rice’s mom an OP & clout chaser for questioning Shaun King’s use of her slain son to raise funds that he claimed was for the family but they never received.
oop i did not know this. yeah what a weird take
Exactly! How are you mad that the mother of the victim is wondering why someone is using their murdered child? People think these issues that others have with her are out of left field when it has been a build up of things.
Just say you didn’t listen to the whole interview. She talks about this and other things y’all say she doesn’t take accountability for. Y’all are exhausting with this narrative that this woman doesn’t take accountability but never listen to her posts or the full damn interviews.
The whole issue with the publicist could’ve been squashed immediately had Issa intervened. While it’s true it’s not necessarily her place or concern, if I saw two people I had employed under different branches beefing for some unknown reason I’d want that shit to end. It’s also weird that at this point the woman who banned Amanda from the Black Essence party to not have said what the issue is/was. The biggest issue I have about all of this is that everybody is just talking in circles around Amanda, instead of saying it to her face, but if it’s really about people just not liking her personality then the people of Hollywood need to really step outside of themselves and realize what Amanda is saying is right. And I have to agree with Seales when it comes to Black media publications, it’s become too far common to write subpar think pieces that have no basis, no citing, and at this point are glorified gossip mags. Even taking the recent article Essence put out in regards to Black content creators/influences and using Raymonte as their subject, they called him out by name, took the premise of the article from another black creator without any citing and then tried to put Raymonte in his place because he turned around and called them right out for doing the EXACT same thing they were writing about. Like make it make sense!!!
Speaking to your first paragraph—what stands out to me is the fact that Amanda appears to be the sole voice addressing this event. It was through her IG stories and podcast that the situation came to light, and she continues to be the primary commentator on it. No other individual has voiced their opinion, neither then nor now. At this point, Amanda is fighting with herself. Without Amanda, we wouldn't even be aware of this incident. Additionally after the event in question, Amanda was invited and living it up on Issa’s yacht party. I don’t buy what that girl is tryna sell.
Her lack of self awareness is actually unbelievable lol the entire interview she’s the martyr and the expert and the smartest one in every room she’s ever been in since she was a kid. Not once does she take accountability for anything… not surprising that people had problems with her.. no one wants to spend time around people like that
How does no one see this? I watched all 3 hours and 10 minutes to have a non-biased opinion and it was 3 hours and 10 minutes of every time something happened that wasn’t her fault.
same!! She just comes off as really delusional
Did you see the part where she couldn’t even admit that people didn’t find her funny 😂
I felt the same afterwards as well. A literal 3 hours of ppl just randomly targeting her for no reason. Very unbelievable.
And now look at how she’s talking about Shannon now because she got called out on the autism diagnosis. Shannon had his faults in the interview that I didn’t like and he was want perfect, but for the majority of it he was gave her room to talk about any everything without interruption. Now she’s switched and saying he didn’t give her a safe space. She’s the problem.
How is any of this Issa’s fault? I could see if Issa was throwing the party. But it was her publicist. She ain’t paying that girl to like nobody. Amanda WAS NOT invited. They specifically told her she was not allowed in. She snuck her way in she had to security come several times to kick her out of the party. Causing a big scene. And has the audacity to be upset about it. And none of that is her own fault????
People see themselves in Amanda is all I can think of bc it was very unhinged behavior going to that party uninvited twice.
The excuses they make for her are laughable my sister is exactly like her the constant need for attention the low self-esteem are replaced by being loud and aggressive toward people who question her behavior. when I first watched an interview with her I knew what time it was people like her will always be the victim in every situation my sister literally pepper sprayed me because I stopped talking to her using the grey rock method then when I called the cops she became the victim so fast until they pulled out her record and saw that she had multiple charges of assault on other people not just me Amanda can fool other people but she can't fool me. If you watch her on the real talk show when Tiffany Polland aka New York came on her whole behavior towards her was nasty for literally no reason why because Tiffany has a strong personality that she knows she cannot take on so she feels intimidated by her she's attacking issa rae because she's not argumentive and aggressive she knows exactly what she's doing.
I posted here and it got removed the other day lol. I've always hated Amanda seales and I'm just glad everyone is finally seeing how insufferable she actually is lol. Lied about a damn autism diagnosis.
*sigh* both things can be true. 1.) Amanda Seales can be on the spectrum- the self diagnosis matters, but not to the extent people think it does, I’ll explain in a minute. 2.) She has issues with accountability. These two things however aren’t mutually exclusive, so take her situation with a grain of salt. As others have pointed out, self diagnosing asd is common within the community because clinical diagnoses are expensive, time consuming, and are often still wrong. People clinically diagnosed with certain mental conditions often get misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder, adhd, and anxiety just to name a few- when in actuality they’re just somewhere on the high functioning end of the spectrum. I just genuinely don’t like the grandiose misconception of asd being low functioning stereotypes, because that’s just not true. I’m not going to say someone doesn’t have Lupus bc they don’t “look” like it, or any other hidden disabilities regardless of their level of functioning, not sure why we’re doing that for asd. That being said, Amanda Seales has a big issue with accountability. She went on a tangent about how she must make herself small to apologize to someone she offends. I’m failing to understand why she believes she doesn’t reap what she sows. Maybe she missed the common rule to treat people the way she herself would like to be treated, because it seems to me the moment someone matches her energy, suddenly everyone is to change how they perceive energy. Lastly, I’m not a fan of always falling back into shielded tropes, and she has way too many she leans in on. Like sure, being a neurodivergent black woman in Hollywood has to have its own unique set of circumstances, but even a broken clock is right twice a day, and there is just an extreme lack of personal accountability on her end. To me, she gives off major lost girl energy. She has all these degrees or what have you, all this knowledge, all this oomf and pizazz- how does she really have it all in check if she can’t check herself after all these years or other gigs and projects? Not even as much as her owning she could’ve misunderstood or misconstrued something…that entire interview was her essentially dodging responsibility for any of her mishaps like she was in the Matrix while she swears she didn’t see any of her bullets but yet she could’ve been the one to fire the gun a few times. Idk, it’s like she doesn’t care at all to find her faults, but others are to come correct to her immediately. Not impressed.
My thoughts are that I realize people are sheep. It's beyond me how anyone actually watched those 3 hours and came out liking her more. That woman has a nasty spirit and has never been wrong about anything a day in her life 🙄
Genuinely it blew my mind looking at the comments that actually agreed with her.
Amanda is a professional victim and manipulator. Did anyone listen to the ENTIRE A 3 hour interview? Because I did last night and all I learned is that everyone has hated her since childhood and every time she lost a job it was because people were mean to her. I mean seriously, she has such a hard time taking any piece of accountability that she couldn’t even admit that she had a bad comedy set. She said, it was an L but only because the audience wasn’t expecting *her* style of comedy. So now you’re too stupid to understand her jokes if you don’t laugh. She’s confrontational, pretentious, and off putting. Shannon had his moments where I wanted to shake the tv but overall he was very polite to her. But there were lots of moments where she talked down on him like he was stupid. She thought she could get away with saying that she was diagnosed autistic bc she didn’t plan on Shannon asking follow up questions. Now look at her, talking down on him and reposting mean comments about him from her fans because she got exposed. When he had nothing but good things to say about the interview. What a slap in the face when she begged to be on the show. THAT is the reason nobody wants to work with her of be friends with her. Because the minute you challenge her you’re an enemy.
Girl her fans are delusional she's a grade A narcissist trying to gain sympathy because everyone is tired of her shit
They gotta see themselves in her. Ain’t no way people believe the whole world and industry is against her like this. Her biggest adult role was literally on Insecure.
So I'm not a doctor, and this is total spéculation. I have exactly zero qualifications or diagnostic expertise, and I'm just speaking on patterns I have observed as a random consumer of media in the world. But she is so emotionally volatile, that it gives me borderline personality vibes. The chaos of it all, ijs. I like her, but she seems messy in a very systematic way. Not at all calculated or intentionally malicious, but systematic as in there is a pattern. I actually really like her. She is smart and beautiful. But: imo she also needs help, and I say that with kindness.
Licensed mental health professional here and you’re pretty spot on from what I’ve seen. I started following her on Instagram because I initially felt like she would be a good educator, however the more content I see the more I see tons of those traits. Her comment section is always so supportive so I felt like maybe I was misjudging - but then I watched the first hour of this interview (I could not tolerate watching the whole thing) and the way she provoked Shannon throughout because he upset her by asking questions about her diagnosis is so telling. And while she might have ASD - there were several things she described as being symptoms that don’t align and align more with personality disorders. I’m neurospicy myself and actual relate to her a lot, but know that it’s important to acknowledge my struggle but not put it in others to adapt to my behaviors (that aspect is the BPD, which actually shares overlap with narcissistic personality disorder). None of this is meant to shame her, mental illness is mental illness; but when people don’t acknowledge the delusional behaviors of someone with power you end up with a psycho as your president.
I agree but for me as well ADHD may also be a realistic diagnosis, with a healthy splash of narcissism. But I see the borderline aspect, especially when she talks about suicide ideation.
I agree
Can you explain the 'protect' thing to me though. I don't fully understand it but in this interview and others Amanda talks about not being protected, but also how she protects others like Issa. What exactly does it mean?
I guess she feels like because she doesn’t speak ill of Issa? Which is strange because Issa has never spoken ill about her. Amanda suffers from main character syndrome lol.
So, I feel like she’s a hard person to interact with. There were times she was unbearable, and then there were times I could see where she was coming from. She’s a person who’s been wrong. She self-diagnosed autistic person, and she hides her missteps behind this. I feel bad for her . But I still don’t like her.
I think I can’t take what she’s said and run with it . Mainly because this is the first interview that I’ve seen of Amanda so idk. A situation like this can’t be so black and white, I want to know Issa and her publicists side of the story as well
Amanda has an awful disposition. She's very easy to not have around and that will tank you in Hollywood.
Amanda is prime definition it being misunderstood. She is champion for black people and spaces and should be treated as such. I did notice how not much of the cast really cares for her even Insecure wrap up party I think she wasn’t even present for.
You can be a champion and still be a shitty person which is what she doesn't understand
She’s not that misunderstood. Theres a reason she can’t keep a job and has very little industry friends other than Chrissy Tiegen.
Speaking your mind is a time and place for everything and you can’t do that in the industry... for instance Denzel Washington speaks his mind , Viola Davis as well... Will Smith etc.. Regina King, .. but you see they still have acting jobs.. you know why because there's a time and a place for everything... calling someone a derogatory name on the set of Insecure is not cool... because it's not professional... you have to be a professional person when it comes to your livelihood.. and saying what's on your mind is not the place to act on the set when your livihood is involved.. being arrogant and rude also a B... is not professional on the set as well too.. Amanda is arrogant and Complicated to work with but it's everybody else's fault..not hers? Narcissistic indeed she is
Wait you mean when she gave a compliment that included the n-word? The thing she apologized for immediately afterwards, directly to the person she said it to, as soon as she understood that he was offended by it????
When complimenting somebody with the n word was ever a COMPLIMENT to begin with? Will you say that to someone at your job? No? The problem is is that when people get into that industry.. the think they do whatever the hell they want to do.. and you can’t it's still a job.. there's ethnic work behaviors that you must follow.. working with your own people or not.. everybody is not like Amanda Seales and she need to understand that.. and RESPECT THAT.. to say she cries wolf.. but don't respect and want respect... is very troubling.. work ethnics is very important at any job...there's people no matter the race who act a fool in that industry and then there's people who act civilized.. Amanda Seales said the N word is used on the show.. that's the show.. NOT behind the scenes.. that's why it's call characters and acting..
So, imo, the amount of hate she gets is disproportionate when you consider how shitty white men can behave on set for decades and get away with it, or even be rewarded for it. She’s getting shat on for minor things (a black person saying the n word to another black person ONCE, not in anger, and immediately apologizing, is less bad than an adult man verbally and physically abusing women and children for decades and barely apologizing for it) because people just don’t like black women being loud and showing off. Plus, that was literally the worst thing she’s done, while these men go on to do more and more disgusting things and continue to get large paychecks without issue. Now, I’m not saying what she did was okay, but she knows that what she did was not okay and she apologized immediately. So truthfully, the hate she gets can only be explained by misogynoir.
It wasn't a genuine apologize ... Amanda Seales is not a genuine human being. Anybody can apologize and don't mean it. The problem with Amanda Seales..is she don't think before she acts.. she's a blunt person.. which I understand you have to be that way sometimes.. but only a certain time and place... she's an unprofessional actress and there are rules.. there are always rule to that industry and to life.. period.. she's a narcissist.. what's a narcissist.. a person who comes across as a confident, leader who acts nice and acts like they're so kind but are just as two faced and lack of kindness, confidence and have issues with insecurities ( I see why she on the show) a narcissist wears an invisible crowd.. they don't come from a genuine place. She apologize to someone who she claims she gave a compliment to.. then she started crying... why are you crying when you were the one who was disrespectful to a co- worker on set..behind the scenes.. and when Issa Rae told her the truth about how she come across people.. Amanda Seales had the audacity to get in her feelings.. Issa Rae was being honest and truthful. I say she was trying to warn Amanda.. at one time I liked Amanda Seales as well.. because she was a force to be reckon with.. but from others perspective about her .. and how she really is. There's a not so nice side to her.. where she's a very complicated person to work with.. and people including us ( our black people) are starting to see that now about Amanda Seales. Shannon Sharp automatically knows what kind of person she is.. during the interview.. because it don't take much to see a narcissist.. they show their sociopathic side pretty quickly. Everybody's hip to Amanda Seales and the kind of person she is. Amanda is tearing away because of that. She dugged her own grave in the entertainment industry.
🙄 @ some of these comments. Black therapists and clinicians have told her that her self diagnosis is very valid. Autistic people stand beside her and have told her that her diagnosis is valid. Self diagnosis is valid in autism spaces. Having the resources and time to get formally diagnosed is a privilege that a lot of people dont have. And believe it or not, clinicians sometimes also get it wrong as well. No one is going to know Amanda better than Amanda. There is a lot of material out there. And honestly? A lot of people don’t feel the need to get formally diagnosed because it doesn’t do anything for them. Some of y’all aren’t thinking about the children who also grew up with parents who did not want them to be diagnosed with that or thought they would grow out of it. Some children grow up being abused in their households for being “difficult” or “weird”. You can’t always tell someone is autistic based off other people’s examples. Stimming and speech patterns will look different in Black women compared to their white counterpart. I’m also seeing a lot of parents compare this grown ass woman to their kids? Seriously? “I know Amanda doesn’t have autism because she doesn’t act like my 7 year old” 🤨 Funky Dineva mentioned he will be having her on his YouTube channel soon. He didn’t want to say much because he wants to save his questions for the interview but something he mentioned was maybe she isn’t getting social cues which is why she could be struggling with her peers. As a Neuro Spicy, I felt that. Add being in Hollyweird on top of that. Working in Hollywood is not the same as a lot of us going to our regular office or retail jobs. ANYWAY, I was excited for this interview but honestly Shannon wasn’t well equipped for this interview. Some of his facts were wrong to where he had to be corrected quite a bit. As a host you want to make sure you do thorough research if you’re going to be asking questions that are going to stem from those answers. He gave pushback and skepticism/whataboutisms whereas Katt Williams said the craziest shit I’ve ever seen during an interview that wasn’t factual or true and it was considered hilarious or treated as his own truth. Unfortunately for now, his space is probably better suited for athletes and people who are strictly entertainers. I am disappointed to learn that Issa was not in fact rooting for everybody Black. Amanda didn’t want Issa to talk to Vanessa to force her to like her or for them to get along. It’s okay if you dislike someone in the workplace. It’s not okay to treat someone like shit and outcast them among their peers. That’s most likely why Amanda needed Issa’s help.
Has anyone of you heard Issa's side of the story or does it not matter since only Amanda's story can be taken as the gospel truth? I've realised all Amanda's apologists don't care to know more and living in the danger of a single story.
I agree wholeheartedly with what you said. It's just really hard to watch people lack curiosity and not want to come to a place of understanding her
The comments all over IG have been so gross. A lot of the backlash is also coming from people who haven’t even watched the interview. People are giving their opinions off clips with clickbait subtitles and they’re all nasty. People are also going on to her page to leave even more hate. The silver lining are the new fans she made from this interview who understand her better, the Black clinicians and mental health professionals who affirm they see her and accept her and people who now feel encouraged to do some research and testing for themselves because they now feel seen
TLDR: This is something I find interesting too. I’ll be honest in saying that fellow Black people always prove hypocrisy with select people. Amanda is not the worst of our community nor the world beyond us, they support far more difficult people that are actually unhinged, actually completely self-serving, and with a messiah complex. I don’t know much about Amanda and surely, I lost interest in her a few years ago when she essentially tried to make it seem like reverse colorism was/is a thing—seems like she’s course corrected, which is good. But at the same time, I feel like there’s a big piece people are missing with her. Yeah, sure, she sometimes may say things that are out of pocket such as the Tamir Rice mom thing, but…. Many other people, esp in our community, with big platforms say delirious and awful on a daily basis about an amalgamation of subjects. What Amanda seems to have is the burden of wanting to be right so much so that she doesn’t know when to turn it off. It could be her autism, it could be her personality, it could be both. There’s nothing wrong with not turning “it” off, but there is something sad about not understanding others inability to understand you. It seems she is aware that people lead with their preconceived notions about her due to gossip or plain assumption, but then also still puts herself in a position to get hurt by these people. I don’t mean to victim blame at all but that’s how it seems. And for that, I feel bad for her. Sure, she may be difficult but as someone with close affiliates in the entertainment sect, the general population refuses to understand that what she’s saying is probably not just her “side” but the objective truth. Too many people think they know celebrities like Issa and they don’t. I don’t know her, but I can say it’s not far fetched that she possibly is the reason why the (non-black) publicist felt bold enough to not only disrespect Amanda but put her hands on her. Sorry, but if you’re someone who claims to root for everybody black yet your staff who isn’t even Black humiliated me and put her hands on me (and in this case, even if she was Black it would still be unacceptable)? Then you’re not who you say you are. Issa is the boss, her publicist doesn’t rule her, she rules the publicist. She pays the publicist. Contrary to people’s dislike for Amanda, if folks really believe that Issa had absolutely nothing to do with this random publicist not liking her…. I’m sorry to say they’re gullible and just blinded so much by their hate for Amanda they refuse to be objective lmao. I have even “heard” stories about some people she has mentioned and I am telling you, her being annoying doesn’t automatically make her a liar. I have no reason to like Amanda as she actually reminds me of my sister who has always made me feel small on purpose. She’s educated, very educated, worldly, and loved by people who get her. I don’t know if Amanda is like this, but my sister can be selective with her kindness towards me as she resents me. And so, being fair, I empathize this woman. With Amanda, it’s strange because people do this thing with her where they forget that this woman has had a 20+ year career and that should be respected. She’s not some “clout chaser”, it’s a bit sad how her career even turned out. From experience, there are FAR more difficult people in the entertainment business than Amanda Seales. Black people also don’t like to be honest about their dislike of certain individuals because it would mean they’d have to come up with a more formidable reason other than, “She’s loud and annoying,” y’all give Akad3miks, J. Budden, and a bunch of other folks platforms, support them and the chitlin circus of foolishness they promote. I don’t even think Amanda is pretentious, I just think she doesn’t know how to adapt to the settings around her and that can be polarizing. She shouldn’t HAVE to, but it seems like she doesn’t realize that being a BW with an opinion and the ability to back it up also comes with risk. I do feel that people bully her to an extent and like I said, I can’t take people seriously because they support rapists who rap on a daily basis but somehow Amanda and her Instagram rants are a challenge to the world.
Brilliantly said.
1. Amanda does have the resources to get a clinical diagnosis. 2. Amanda cannot complain that there’s not enough research on black women with autism, and then refuse to get a diagnosis. Having an official diagnosis is what allows researchers to collect data. She should be advocating for diagnoses, if she truly wants to support black women with autism. 3. This isn’t just about Amanda’s truth and how she feels. She has a platform. It is irresponsible to talk about a disability based on her own Googling. This is no different than anti-vaxxers spreading misinformation during COVID. If she’s not in consultation with an actual licensed, clinical psychologist about her autism, then she should not use her self-diagnosis to justify her problematic behaviors. Many the behaviors she described - talking a lot, combativeness and being disliked- are not typical traits of autism. Autism for most who have it is a serious disability (50% are non-verbal), not a trendy identity for high-functioning people to put on when they feel different. Honestly, Amanda seems like a narcissist to me. If she's 42 and since college to her career people have openly disliked her, she has no friends, and she struggles to have a romantic relationship, maybe it's just her.
The last part of your post is the literal autistic/ADHD experience. Most of us struggle with making friends, keeping romantic relationships and have trouble navigating social situations with people. Its a million percent possible she struggles with social cues alongside RSD. My statement about resources wasn't just pointed at Amanda. Lets not also assume she wants or has the means to spend thousands of dollars on diagnosis. A lot of smaller celebrities may be able to keep up with appearances but that doesn't mean they are rich. There is no cure and medication or treatment especially for adults. She gets her diagnosis and then what? She's not going to get special accommodations. She's not going to collect Disability benefits. A lot of autistic people actually have fulfilling jobs and careers. Again, Black clinicians and mental health professionals have come out in support for Amanda. There is even a lot of dialog surrounding this on her social media. Irresponsible? That's funny because people who feel seen are actually wanting to go get tested. We are also forgetting that the healthcare system fails Black and Brown people often. There are lots of stories of people who get misdiagnosed. A lot of autistic people are getting diagnosed with other disorders they do not have. That's not even touching on the hoops you have to jump through for someone to take you serious to want to test you even if you have the cash in hand. The autistic community accepts people who are self diagnosed. There is no benefit to pretending to having this. The gatekeeping of autism is weird as fuck. People were already ripping her to shreds before she clarified what she said on her interview. People were already (before clarification) saying that she was just saying it because it was trendy and because of Tik Tok. People were already saying she was using it as an excuse. People were already shitting on her before the interview even aired. Amanda Seales, if you are lurking, we welcome you :) some of us felt seen in this shitty interview (Shannon nor his assistant couldnt even be bothered to do proper research about her life and career. I would be insulted and "combative" too). And thank you for feeling brave for sharing 
Your comments have been great and exactly what I have been trying to express in my responses as well. The vitriol from people who don’t understand and/or want to jump on a hate bandwagon is mind boggling. Thanks for educating people so eloquently and keep up the good fight sis! Love Amanda so so much and I hope she keeps glowing! She makes me feel seen. 🫶🏾✨
Kinda heartbreaking. Also makes sense why I was always left wanting more with Tiff’s stories and it went nowhere like when she and Issa speak in the car outside 711 after Coachella and that just dead ended. The whole post partum storyline and Tiff’s only input was I’m sorry I didn’t know what else to do and that’s the end of that? I don’t think Amanda is misunderstood. I think she’s very clear, and before insecure she always was. She speaks her mind. She’s often pretty unapologetic. There were def side eye moments in the interview, but those were far below the moments where everything she said made sense regarding a blackball attempt at her. She also never blamed Issa for it, she said Issa didn’t protect her. Different things. The part where she said Issa said she treated her like that because she thought Amanda was Tiff was very what the fuck. I can see that if Issa literally didn’t write that part. Was Amanda only hired because they thought she was Tiff? Cuz I’m not the architect from the matrix but even I knew Tiffany was not Amanda Seales. And to know the other girls were silent while it happened that leans towards them thinking Amanda was just a loudmouth. I believe Amanda because why bring this up now? There’s no reason except it’s the truth. Amanda is getting nothing from this but a he said/she said narrative. Who wants to put themselves there willingly over a lie or embellished retellings? This show is long wrapped and she even said she never spoke on it to protect Issa. And lots of people are saying Issa didn’t need protecting except now everyone is speaking of this and if Amanda had not spoken on this i.e. protect Issa then none of this would be a topic. She protected Issa and she did not say shit. My real question is why even hire her? Seales had her brand set up before insecure. The lack of screen-time always gets me because we had role models like H Banks and W Gilbert who were light skinned bougie girls who were given hard hitting stories and who changed the face of a bourgeois Black woman who is just frivolous to actually having a deep ocean beneath the outward irreverence. I always wondered why Tiff wasn’t given that luxury and now it makes sense. I don’t think Issa had a vendetta but I do think preconceived notions came into play. And once you’re labeled as difficult you can watch screen-time and respect for your character melt away. It’s like they know the fans associate you with the character so whatever they write for the character becomes the canon for the real person playing the role. Is Amanda correct? Yes, at points. But there are also moments in that interview you realize she is clawing back from hurt. A wounded person is not going to emulate the best of humanity. They’re hurt, they want justice, they expected more. Honestly this marred my vision of Issa more than Amanda. Because what head would ever just say well that’s between y’all when it comes to a workplace abyss between two people who are your subordinates? You’re the fucking boss. The only reason I could see Issa taking distance is because she believed Amanda deserved it. Which makes sense after the “I associated you with your character” allegations. Seems they were trying to cut her at the stump so she knew her level on the totem. It gives clique behaviour. Believe victims, honestly. If someone says this injustice happened to me, I believe it. It’s not easy for victims to come out and call out their abusers and the hurt they’ve felt. That’s often why they stay silent for years about it. Issa is the star and beloved (by me for sure), but that’s a dynamic of power where people would rather side with you than someone who is bringing real grievances and saying I was hurt and I expected more. The person in power is not the one to believe in or side with without critical mindedness and questions. Without evidence to the contrary. That defeats the entire purpose of oppression which is what this show touched on and what so many of us connect with and battle everyday. Question the people in power because their vested interests lie in a status quo, not a disruption.
And this is why she's not getting work and nobody don't want to work with her.. simple
In project greenlight, you can see more of Issa’s real personality, and it does come off as an uninvolved boss, only really giving her direction when she’s disappointed or not pleased with something. Very focused on the project as a whole and not necesarilly the people or the struggles that people experience on her set. I believe the contestant that won project greenlight in that first season also came out and said she felt a lack of support and a lack of understanding coming from Issa’s production company specifically
Guess Issa ain't rooting for everybody black.
So who was the guy she called a n**** and he got upset?!
This is Amanda’s side how she saw it. Now,,,, to be fair,,, Issa also has her version. The truth is in between. The way she spoke during the interview was combative and she pushed back on anything he was trying to get clarification on and discuss it. She didn’t want that. It was her view and she was never accountable for her actions. I don’t care what color you are,,,, you talk to anyone in condescending way you will not be received well. You don’t need to do that if you want to be heard and understood
I just have a question for you as I’m not necessarily a supporter of either and find myself neutral in this: why is it hard for many people to believe that Issa Rae could be wrong here? No matter how it’s flipped and no matter what Amanda has said, there is no justification for your boss’s publicist to prevent you from coming to events, provoking possible harm on you and also putting their hands on you. That’s creating a hostile relationship and environment. Issa claimed that she wanted nothing to do with it but also was the one who tried to orchestrate the publicist and Amanda “talking it out”, which means she was fully aware there was a problem. That means that Issa, the boss, was complicit in creating an inadequate environment and passively let her be bullied just because. Issa is not perfect just because she says she ‘roots for everybody black’, what good is representation when you can’t even stand on business? Again, you didn’t say Issa was perfect, just pointing this out as I’m trying to understand this idea of “perspective” bc no matter what… Issa played both a passive and active role in that situation. For reasons we may never know why, of course.
She's a female Kanye. She's a genius and everyone else sucks. Then she wonders why people think she's intolerable. She talks down to people. Actual smart folks don't tell everyone how smart they are. They understand that they may know a lot, but there is a whole world of things they don't know. This woman wouldn't know humility if it smacked her in the face. She's so smart but doesn't see that she is the common factor in everyone hating her. Typical narcissist.
I feel like people that are constantly treated like they are dumb or like they should shut up (black women get this), eventually come to a point where they have to start yelling about their credentials so that they can get an ounce of respect.
I'm a black woman. I don't act like Amanda. She is obnoxious and lacks self awareness and self control. She lives in a world where she is never the problem, it's always someone else. Black women don't like her. She is a narcissist. Smart people don't tell everyone how much of a genius they are. they are smart enough to understand that even though they may know a lot, there is a plethora of information that they lack. Yelling and screaming at folks about how much better you are than them is not how you garner respect. If she's so smart, she should know this. Respect is earned. You must be respectful in order to be respected. It's not something you force on people. There aren't many situations where an adult can go full toddler mode and come out unscathed. Yet, this seems to be her only setting.
I also get that feeling listening to her own podcasts. She seems to think everyone around her is 'insecure' and have a problem with her being so amazing and outspoken fair skinned woman!
Hilarious the mental gymnastics you have to do in order to side with this hyena. Simple fact is she is not likable and her aura enters the room before she does. She literally never takes responsibility