Best Posts in Thread: Insecure’s Ahmal Hints At What Black Gay TV Could Be

Maybe I missed something but the code switch to me proved (at least with his introduction) that he was somewhat stereotypical.

Due to regular normal black gay dudes not being entertaining due to their lack of gay cooning; I just cant see a show representing anything that we haven't seen before.

 

@Ockydub Exactly right they contradicted themselves he "code switches" when he talks to the female characters which is a stereotypical behavior. Ocky makes a good point in that Black gay men and gay men of any ethnicity really who are "regular dudes." Are not deemed entertaining. This seems especially true for black gay characters. Content creators don't seem satisfied unless they're queening out for the camera.
They wanna see flamboyance, finger snaps, eye rolls, and bitchy attitudes, but no overtly sexual behavior. This is considered comedic, entertaining, and non-threatening. Otherwise otherwise gay black man is just another threatening black male with the added threat of being a homosexual which makes heteros both black and white very uncomfortable. If you wanna see a non stereotypical black gay character check out "Hap and Leonard." Leonard is played by Michael K. Williams who we all recognize as Omar from "The Wire." "Hap and Leonard" is now in its second season.

 

Im saying bro, damn.

It just seems to me some people are so into this strict definition of what
"masculine" is that the second you say girl, roll your eyes, or say anything deemed "fem gay" your flat out placed into the box with a rupual watching, queendom, wanna be black woman.

I remember Chad ocho Cinco was saying chile please and yea some questioned his manhood but many just saw it as him being funny. I have seen Big Boi do the same thing. But I guess if your gay your being serious and wanna be a woman huh?

 

There’s a lot happening on Insecure this season. Issa is, unconvincingly, running a “hotation” as a means of getting over Lawrence. Molly is caught up in a steamy affair with Dro, her married childhood friend who’s in an open marriage. And Lawrence even has a new bae. But one thing you might have missed was the introduction of Issa’s gay brother, Ahmal (played by Jean Elie). And the reason you might have missed him is a good one—he’s not a stereotype.

Prior to the first episode of the season, we had no idea Issa even had a brother, considering she behaves a bit like an only child. But he’s a welcome, and minor, addition to the cast. At Issa’s disastrous house party, she brings Ahmal as her “plus one”. When he greets the guys at the party, his voice drops and he plays it cool. But when he sees his female friends, his tone shoots up and he’s like one of the girls. It’s a “blink and you missed it” kind of moment, but it provides a window into black, gay life. The Advocate did a great job of deconstructing the scene here, so there’s no need to dive into code switching. But there is another element to Ahmal’s presence on the show.

Not that there’s anything wrong with Insecure, because it’s already repping an underrepresented Hollywood demographic. And I’m not expecting it to be everything to everyone. But given the show’s open discussion of male sexuality, I kind of expected a gay character to pop up somewhere.

I was happy to see Ahmal, and I was even happier to see Ahmal’s portrayal. He’s not onscreen long enough to show layers, but in the short time he shares the screen with Issa, he’s her brother—not her gay brother. There aren’t a lot of gay, black male characters on TV right now. If you think about it, other than Ahmal, the only other representation we have is Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Captain Ray Holt (played by Andre Braugher) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’s Titus Andromedon (played by Tituss Burgess). The portrayals are all comedic and, in some cases, overblown or one-sided portrayals of gay life. Insecureavoids that, which is great. But it gets my wheels turning—why haven’t we seen a full, HBO-quality series about our experience?

I’m not naïve—I understand why we haven’t seen a full series materialize. Certain elements of our culture (our sayings, drag, voguing) are more bankable than others. And Hollywood’s diversity push has focused almost exclusively on race. Not sexuality. But it’s high time our community got a little bit of that cable production money for a new, black LGBTQ statement.

Remember Noah’s Arc, Patrik-Ian Polk’s groundbreaking sitcom about the lives of four gay, black men? That series went off the air after 2 seasons—over 10 years ago. And we’ve seen nothing like it since. We’ve had to settle for playing second fiddle to other characters, if we’re present at all.

Gay TV in general is suffering right now. The last gay-centered show we had was Looking which suffered a similar fate as Noah’s Arc. So, it might seem presumptuous to ask for something so specific when there isn’t even one current show to use as a reference point. But I think we’re ready for it.

Queer visibility, like that of Ahmal, is two-fold. On one hand, it’s incredible that he’s black and gay, and no one is talking about it. He isn’t a stereotype, and he seems to be three-dimensional. But at the same time, being mixed into the cast of show, with several other characters who drive the dominant narrative, isn’t exactly visibility. Kudos to Insecure for writing a character like Ahmal into the show. But shame on everyone else for constantly forcing us to sit on the sidelines.

We’re ready for primetime.