Comedian and cultural commentator Amanda Seales has recently resurfaced online days after Issa Rae’s critical remarks about their past exchange. However, her cryptic return post has left fans and followers speculating about her absence on social media lately.
Seales’ new post, which some interpreted as political commentary, satire, or a clever nod to her “Smart Funny & Black” brand, has sparked a whirlwind of interpretations.
On Sept. 28, she shared what appears to be a screenshot of a phone contact for someone named “Harriet Tubman” set against a bright yellow background. The post shows an emoji of a woman contorted as if to smirk with displeasure, wearing cornrows and two braided buns on either side of its head. Accompanying the image was a single, cryptic caption: a red emergency telephone emoji.
Like, what does it mean to get a call from none other than Harriet Tubman?
However, many zeroed in on the humorous nature of her post, with one follower in her comments section asking, “lol is this Issa?” Another replied, “I thought so too.”
In April 2024, Seales went viral for her interview with Shannon Sharpe’s “Club Shay Shay,” where she made remarks about her former boss and her difficult time filming Rae’s HBO Comedy, “Insecure,” which they both starred in.
Seales, who played Tiffany DuBois on the series, claimed that she was “humiliated” after being kicked out of a 2019 Black Emmys party she attended with fellow “Insecure” actor Kendrick Sampson and her friend. However, Rae’s publicist, Vanessa Anderson, who “had a problem” with her, informed Seales she would not be let in, Seales said.
“She tells us, ‘You can go in, you can go in’ … and she says, ‘No, you can’t go in. I said, ‘Why can’t I go in?’ She says, ‘You’re just on the list of not being able to go in,'” Seales explained to Sharpe at the time.
She said she was then approached by a big security guard who asked her to leave. The stand-up comic felt Rae should have stepped in, instead she was told, “That’s between y’all. That’s none of my business.”
Rae seemingly addressed their rocky relationship recently during the Sept. 24 Brooklyn launch of her sparkling wine, Viarae, where she made a subtle but pointed remark.
In the audio, reported by “The Breakfast Club,” Rae can be heard responding to a question about people she would “never work with again.”
Without naming names, she said, “I mean anybody who goes on a podcast and talks s—t about me,” before quickly softening her stance, adding, “I’ve had great experiences with everybody I’ve worked with though, so for the most part, like, I’m always grateful when people come back.”
Touching on the Emmys party, Rae insisted she was in New York at the time and found out the next morning. She also stated that she never forced Seales to speak to her publicist.
“I wanted two adults to, you know, have a conversation and mend the relationship—two adults who didn’t like each other, and it didn’t work out and we got back to work,” Rae said.
Although Rae didn’t mention Seales by name, many fans speculated that she was the intended subject of Rae’s comments, The fallout from that incident seemingly contributed to the growing tension between the two.
Seales faced criticism about her interview online, especially it was the first time she mentioned Rae by name. She responded in a series of since-deleted videos before going back to her normal content about politics and the government ahead of the election, which also received backlash.
That backlash was also tied to her controversial comments about presidential hopeful Kamala Harris saying America is not an inherently racist nation, which the “Small Doses” podcast host later clarified and said did not go the way that she initially said it did.
Before that, Seales began experiencing a flare-up of her depressions or sadness about her allegedly being rejected by Black spaces in Hollywood and never getting invited back to certain award shows like the BET Awards, NAACP Awards or the Essence Black Women in Hollywood Awards.
Regardless of the reasons behind her sharing less of her commentary on social media over the past few weeks, many appear to miss her banter online.
The meme is the first post Seales has shared since her Sept. 6 post, where fans were quick to express their disappointment with her lack of commentary in the comments.
“I thought they had shadow-banned you or something, Lawd,” wrote one person, as another said, “I was wondering if the algorithm was suppressing you from my feed. Turns out you had not posted in a while. Welcome back!”
A third said, “Glad to see you’ve been protecting your peace!”
Some noted that Seales hadn’t entirely disappeared from the public eye — she’s been active on her Patreon account, where she shares content regularly and released a newsletter. She also has promoted her page on her IG about a dozen times since July 31, but her return to Instagram after 22 days of silence was nonetheless celebrated by her core audience.
