Why can't we break that glass ceiling? Why can't we be in the courtrooms and actually have a Black perspective on things that are happening in politics and just news period? We wouldn't be able to tell the story from any other perspective other than given to us by white media. Like if someone died in our community at the hands of police brutality, we wouldn't be at the forefront. I felt like Black media was always on the outskirts of major news events. Nwandu: We have dipped our feet into production…we definitely want to continue to do more programming…the main thing is that we want to continue to move the needle and be more present in news. What do you envision for the next five years when it comes to The Shade Room and where you want the platform to go? I rise to the occasion.Īsare: bell hooks has this quote that I really love where she says, ‘what we cannot imagine cannot come into being.’ It's been eight years since The Shade Room was birthed out of your mind. And so, it is challenging, but I accept it. We are seen as people who have to have a greater responsibility in whatever we're doing. In a lot of ways, being a Black woman raises the responsibility, raises the stakes and that's in any field. They want us to be involved in social justice…I accept that responsibility, but we aren't held to the same standards as like a TMZ where they don't really care if you are a social justice warrior or not, or if you're amplifying protests…all of that is not attributed to them. I feel like being a Black woman owner, people expect a lot more. Nwandu: And also, I feel like being…and I hate to pull this card, but it's the truth. Media plays such a big role.Īsare: You feel the weight of everything on your shoulders because you are the creator, people know you specifically by name and anything that gets posted, it's a reflection of The Shade Room, but it also may come back on you. There’re so many people who have benefited from being on a stage where they normally may not be mainstream or given mainstream publicity but because we have a big platform, they're able to come on The Shade Room and get that. It built my career.’ There were people we posted, they went to Ellen and started doing book tours. There are days when I wake up and I'm like, ‘What is The Shade Room doing?’ Then I run into people randomly and they're like, ‘Hey, I was on your platform and you don't know how this helped my life. What am I doing? Why is this hard?’ And a friend of mine told me, ‘Well, you know that you have the right intentions because it's hard.’ I remember talking to another head of a media company and I said, ‘Isn't this hard?’ And they were like, ‘No, it's easy.’ I went home with that and I said, ‘Well, wait. For me, it's a daily struggle because first of all, I love the Black community…but I also feel the responsibility and the weight of it all…I'm constantly getting criticized about our reporting. There are so many stories that we could have put out. There’re so many exclusives we could have had. ![]() ![]() The Shade Room has become the premier place for Black celebrity news gettyĪsare: Do you ever feel like you have a responsibility as a Black woman to not put out certain stories? Do you ever have those moments where you're like, ‘I know that this is breaking news, but for whatever reason, we just feel like morally this isn't something that we want to put out?’
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