Activist and comedian Amanda Seales got on Instagram on Thursday night to discuss the Black media and social media reaction to her recent autism diagnosis. The “Insecure” star specifically called out a post from the outlet Baller Alert.
“[Baller Alert] wants to suggest that because my autism diagnosis did not come from a clinician that it is not valid,” she said on Instagram. “What’s not valid is people speaking on things that they don’t know about.”
Seales went on to tell the internet to back-off. “My autism diagnosis is not for you all to discuss, it’s not for you to debate,” said Seales.
Seales shared the news about her diagnosis during her three-hour long conversation with football star Shannon Sharpe for his podcast “Club Shay Shay. ”
Seales explained to Sharpe that her diagnosis has helped her better understand herself and shift her negative self-perspective. “When you take the test you’re like hold’up,” said the comedian, “I’ve been thinking my whole life that this was a problem.”
She said that some of her behaviors finally clicked, like her need to doodle for example. “The fact that I have to be doing things all of the time to be stimulated,” said Seales. “It’s literally called stimming.”
“These are small things that are indicative of like your brain functions in a very particular way. It’s also atypical to the way our society functions.”
Twitter/X has a lot to say about Seales’ revelations — including a large swath of support from people who appreciate her bravery in speaking out.
Several people came for Sharpe for questioning Seales’ diagnosis, among other things she discussed in the interview.
However, several are also questioning if Seales was formally diagnosed with autism or if she self-diagnosed. In an Instagram Live, following the interview, Seales said that she had not been “clinically diagnosed by a doctor.”
During the interview, Seales noted that Black women tend to have a harder time getting a diagnosis and culturally relevant support for a myriad of reasons. For one thing, as an article in The 19th explains, Black women and girls are generally excluded from autism research.
In fact, the research tends to exclude Black people and women all-together, meaning we don’t have a good sense of how autism manifests in people who aren’t white men.
As for Seales, the diagnosis appears to have helped her understand herself better, and that’s a win!