Comic Amanda Seales ripped Shannon Sharpe for turning his “Club Shay Shay” podcast into an “interrogation” after she said she was diagnosed with autism.
via: Vibe
Following the viral interview, the cultural commentator has now voiced her disdain for how the sit-down was conducted. Seales took to Instagram a day after her episode premiered claiming she felt “interrogated” by Sharpe, whom she believes had “zero love” for her as his guest.
She shared these views after receiving backlash for stating she was diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum, and later revealing she’s never been clinically diagnosed by a physician.
“Shannon: But have you been clinically diagnosed? Me: Yes. There is a clinical diagnosis for Autism,” she reiterated their conversation from the interview on her IG Story. “He then hung his head and exhaled in frustration because I did not answer his question.”
“That is called deflection,” she explained of her response to him. “Why? Because I was not going to be pressured by this man who was interrogating me with absolutely zero love for me into proving something to him that L. By his line of questioning, he had already committed to undermining.
She added, “I understand my response may be confusing to some but I am clarifying it. As I did in my Live. And that is enough.”
The portion of the Club Shay Shay interview in question took place when Seales was asked about her well-being, to which she responded that she’s “evolving” and has been receiving “a lot of information and a lot of slander at the same time.”
Further detailing what she meant, she explained, “In the past month… it’s just been a very, like, difficult time, but there’s been really beautiful things that have come out of it. I was recently diagnosed as someone who has autism spectrum disorder, which is very difficult to identify in Black women because of racism.”
“What it typically means is that your brain functions in a different way, so you’re neurodivergent,” she continued. “And you also have certain tendencies that are considered outside of what the neurotypical way of things is. And a lot of times that can have you present in a manner that people misrepresent, which is the story of my f**king life.”
Seales also uploaded a video of her explaining that her self-diagnosed Autism Spectrum Disorder is not “up for debate,” while calling out Black media (again) for “discrediting” her.
“Yet another Black space — because there is such a dedicated effort to degrade me and defame me, it is beyond my scope of comprehension — wants to suggest that because my autism diagnosis didn’t come from a clinician that it is not valid,” she said. “What’s not valid is people speaking on things that they don’t know about.”
According to The 19th News, “Black girls and women are later diagnosed with autism,” as “most mental health disorders present differently in Black women because it’s looked at through such a White and male lens. People don’t recognize similar behaviors with traditionally feminine or Black interests.”
I find it quite hilarious that everyone was with Amanda regarding her autism diagnosis until she revealed she didn't go to a doctor. She actually did the research, and based on her own self-assessments, it matched with the symptoms of ASD.
We as a society have been conditioned to believe that medical professionals are always right, and not to question their judgement. Meanwhile there have been a miltitude of reported biases and misdiagnoses towards POC, especially towards black women.
For example, Halle Berry, an Academy award-winner recently revealed that a herpes misdiagnosis about three years ago prompted her to use her platform to help other women transitioning through menopause.
So at the end of the day, figure out what works for you. If you can afford to spend $10,000 on a ASD diagnosis, go ahead and do that. But also do your research, and get multiple medical opinions if you can afford to.
As for Shannon, I will say he's more interested in going viral than having a legitimate conversation with the celebrities he invited on to his podcast. I did feel at times he would push back on some of Amanda's lived experience, especially when it came to making excuses towards the white kids that were racist towards her.
Shannon may have gotten quite lucky jumping into the podcasting space, but if you don't have the bandwidth to go toe-to-toe with an intellect such as Amanda Seales, then maybe you need to jump out of the pop culture pool, and stay in your sports lane.
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