From putting together the perfect pantsuit look to planning a platform and prioritizing issues, running for office is not a simple endeavor. Social commentator and actor Amanda Seales wanted to learn more about this firsthand. So, in her new, Patreon-funded political comedy documentary, In Amanda We Trust (available to stream on patreon.com), she delves into all the possibilities of public service with humor, heart, and the kind of brutal honesty that’s made her an important voice on social media, YouTube, and on her podcast, Small Doses.
“A lot of people would genuinely tell me, ‘You should run for office,’” Seales, 42, reveals in a Zoom interview from her L.A. home. “But I didn’t always take a political stance with things. I took a social justice advocacy stance. Politics felt very far away from my point of view–it was so complicated, there were so many names, it felt very convoluted, and it made me feel like a lot of people feel, which is that we don’t really have access to it.”
Seales didn’t want to be another person complaining on the internet but not actually doing something, so she sought to educate herself in a deeper way. “It took me being in a room with people who knew more about it than I do to say, ‘OK, let me understand this government that we’re in. Let me understand the players. Let me understand the game,” she says. “It made me say, ‘Oh, I have to know more about this. We need more values that are grounded in unity, ethics, and principles. The more of us who actually have those things and also know what’s going on in government, the more we can eventually make the changes that we need.”
In her documentary, Seales is joined by members of the U.S. Congress, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Ilhan Omar, to discuss the challenges of creating and passing bills. And she goes directly to the streets, too, interviewing everyday folks about what they really understand about government structure and decision-making. There’s also a fun segment about how fashion can influence public perception.
Though best known for her role as the know-it-all, designer-label-sporting Tiffany Dubois on HBO’s award-winning Insecure, Seales is much more down to earth and relatable than that character. The media she creates as herself is a breath of fresh air, especially when she calls out the hypocrisy running rampant in both cultural and political spheres. To this end, when asked, she says she does not identify as a “feminist” because “the feminist movement was not really giving a damn about Black women.” She goes on to clarify, “I do consider myself a womanist—shout out to Alice Walker [who coined the term to describe feminist women of color.] On a basic level, any of us who want women to have equality and safety and fairness are coming from a feminist mind state. But to label myself with that title feels like there’s a disconnect from the realities.”
Though her potential run for office was less of a genuine pursuit and more of a thematic device for her hybrid documentary/comedy special (which also features audio edits from her stand-up sets), Seales’ charisma and deep social conscience suggest she’d be great on the campaign trail for real one day. But she’s not so sure. “You have to be a certain kind of person to deal with the red tape, the bureaucracy, the politicking,” she explains. “I feel like I wouldn’t be my most effective self. I believe that change is going to require banging our heads against the wall on both sides of the wall. So, I’d rather be on the outside than the inside—at least then, I can just wear sneakers.”
–Lina Lecaro
Amanda Seales gets political in her new doc In Amanda We Trust
In her latest doc, actor, podcaster, and stand-up comic Amanda Seales tackles her toughest stage yet—politics
From putting together the perfect pantsuit look to planning a platform and prioritizing issues, running for office is not a simple endeavor. Social commentator and actor Amanda Seales wanted to learn more about this firsthand. So, in her new, Patreon-funded political comedy documentary, In Amanda We Trust (available to stream on patreon.com), she delves into all the possibilities of public service with humor, heart, and the kind of brutal honesty that’s made her an important voice on social media, YouTube, and on her podcast, Small Doses.
“A lot of people would genuinely tell me, ‘You should run for office,’” Seales, 42, reveals in a Zoom interview from her L.A. home. “But I didn’t always take a political stance with things. I took a social justice advocacy stance. Politics felt very far away from my point of view–it was so complicated, there were so many names, it felt very convoluted, and it made me feel like a lot of people feel, which is that we don’t really have access to it.”
Seales didn’t want to be another person complaining on the internet but not actually doing something, so she sought to educate herself in a deeper way. “It took me being in a room with people who knew more about it than I do to say, ‘OK, let me understand this government that we’re in. Let me understand the players. Let me understand the game,” she says. “It made me say, ‘Oh, I have to know more about this. We need more values that are grounded in unity, ethics, and principles. The more of us who actually have those things and also know what’s going on in government, the more we can eventually make the changes that we need.”
In her documentary, Seales is joined by members of the U.S. Congress, including Rep. Jamaal Bowman and Rep. Ilhan Omar, to discuss the challenges of creating and passing bills. And she goes directly to the streets, too, interviewing everyday folks about what they really understand about government structure and decision-making. There’s also a fun segment about how fashion can influence public perception.
Though best known for her role as the know-it-all, designer-label-sporting Tiffany Dubois on HBO’s award-winning Insecure, Seales is much more down to earth and relatable than that character. The media she creates as herself is a breath of fresh air, especially when she calls out the hypocrisy running rampant in both cultural and political spheres. To this end, when asked, she says she does not identify as a “feminist” because “the feminist movement was not really giving a damn about Black women.” She goes on to clarify, “I do consider myself a womanist—shout out to Alice Walker [who coined the term to describe feminist women of color.] On a basic level, any of us who want women to have equality and safety and fairness are coming from a feminist mind state. But to label myself with that title feels like there’s a disconnect from the realities.”
Though her potential run for office was less of a genuine pursuit and more of a thematic device for her hybrid documentary/comedy special (which also features audio edits from her stand-up sets), Seales’ charisma and deep social conscience suggest she’d be great on the campaign trail for real one day. But she’s not so sure. “You have to be a certain kind of person to deal with the red tape, the bureaucracy, the politicking,” she explains. “I feel like I wouldn’t be my most effective self. I believe that change is going to require banging our heads against the wall on both sides of the wall. So, I’d rather be on the outside than the inside—at least then, I can just wear sneakers.”
