Andrew on ‘Insecure’ is Issa Rae’s middle finger to Cancel Culture
How we learned to love Andrew more than Molly
When Alexander Hodge showed up in the Coachella scene of HBO’s “Insecure,” eyebrows raised. The actress and creator of HBO’s “Insecure” had already been canceled for a chapter in her 2015 book “The Misadventures of Awkward Girl.”
Speaking about the dating obstacles that African-American women and Asian men deal with (specifically considering African-American men and Asian women are more likely to be open to interracial dating), the actress said, “This is why I propose that black women and Asian men join forces in love, marriage and procreation. Educated black women, what better intellectual match for you than an Asian man? And I’m not talking about Filipinos, they’re like the Blacks of Asians. I’m talking Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, et cetera.”
While Filipinos definitely could’ve felt a way about that line, if you know the tone of Issa Rae’s dry humor, she has love for Filipinos, too. (If she didn’t, she wouldn’t have compared them to Blacks, of which she is one. Senegalese is still under our umbrella, thanks.) The point was for sistas to open themselves up to other types of men.
Three years after the book was released, Cancel Culture decided to have an angry book club meeting and cause an uproar about that chapter. (Cancel Culture does not have a statute of limitations. They’re mad about Jimmy Fallon’s blackface “SNL” skit from 20 years ago right now, completely ignoring the major cultural changes in comedy do’s and don’ts from then to now. “In Living Color” would’ve been grounds for all kinds of LGBTQ+ protests, while we’re at it.)
Recommended Read: “Dating black women: Interracial dating gone right and wrong ~ Step one: Stop talking about slavery at dinner”
The easy way out would have been for Issa Rae to flood “Insecure” with the darkest, most splendidly handsome brothas she could find to “save” herself from the backlash of Cancel Culture. (Viewers like myself thank her profusely for every scene with Y’lan Noel.) But Cancel Culture has a habit of wanting to win instead of wanting to just have the conversation to learn and reevaluate.
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Instead of bowing down to it, the creators of “Insecure” challenged the same people who were challenging her. In comes Andrew (played by Hodge), who is flirting profusely with Molly (played by Yvonne Anuli Orji), a black woman who cannot wrap her mind around the idea of being an African-American woman dating an Asian man — similar to Cancel Culture’s loudest protesters.