Amanda Seales addressed rumors surrounding her departure from The Real on Hollywood Unlocked. The comedienne said she left the popular daytime show due to the lack of Black leadership.
“A lot of times we are only considering the people that we’re gonna be on camera with and we don’t necessarily vet like the production company or the network or the actual showrunner,” said Seales.
“We don’t vet these things, we kind of just feel like ah, we’ll figure that out but these are the people who are actually going to be choosing the content that you’re doing and they’re gonna be the ones walking you through the steps every day.”
Amanda Seales attends the Build Series to discuss ‘Small Doses’ at Build Studio on October 03, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dominik Bindl/Getty Images)
The Smart, Funny & Black founder revealed that every aspect of the show, including the popular “Girl Chat” segment, where the diverse cast presents their personal viewpoints, is supervised by White executives.
“I was on a show that on its core base is okay, these are diverse women who are talking about things and keeping it real to a diverse audience. When in reality it’s being run by, you know, a White woman, who doesn’t have the connection to that experience and our topics are being picked by someone who doesn’t. And, you know, our chat is produced by a White man who, even if he has the best of intentions, he has a disconnect by simply his experience in the world from what we’re going to be addressing.”
Seales, who also hosts the Small Doses podcast, said that the lack of melanin behind the camera was a problem at every level, not just the top.
“Then we have, you know, executives on the way up who are all White women and again they have the best of intentions for their company and for their network but not necessarily for my culture,” she said. “How could they?”
“They’re not connected to this which is why representation is so important, which is why having Black folks and people of all colors are necessary in these executive positions,” Seales said.
SANTA MONICA, CALIFORNIA – NOVEMBER 10: (L-R) Jeannie Mai, Tamera Mowry-Housley, Loni Love and Adrienne Houghton attends the 2019 E! People’s Choice Awards at Barker Hangar on November 10, 2019 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
She explained that the type problems she experienced could not be solved by tokenism.
“Oftentimes we have executive positions where they’ve only made room for one VP, you know they’ve only made room for one Executive Producer. Well I’m sorry but sometimes you’re going to need to vary that, because you’re going to need to vary the perspective, so that people are, there’s not one person of power that’s making these decisions who doesn’t have enough of an understanding of the limitations of their vantage point.”
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