In early October, Insecure actress Amanda Seales set the internet ablaze when she tweeted, “If you’re buying Jordans and Nike Suits but you’re sleeping on an air mattress, YOU’RE LOSING. If you’re buying Jordans and Nike Suits but you don’t have a PASSPORT, YOU’RE LOSING.”
The comment sparked immediate backlash and controversy, as Twitter users shared their opinions on the actress’ statements. Seales responding to many, including ESSENCE, about the misinterpretation.
Recently, Seales stopped by ESSENCE’s Yes, Girl!, where she clarified her comments.
“I made a comment, that I still stand behind, which was that if you can afford multiple—that’s why there was an ‘s’—Jordans, we must assume that when we say Jordans we are not simply referring to one pair, and Nike suits, plural. So, that’s multiples,” she explained. “A full Nike suit is like $350, the pants are like $200, sometimes even $500. Jordans, $200-$250 minimum. If you can afford multiples of these things and you do not have a passport, you’re losing. Somehow that statement turned into, ‘Amanda Seales is a classist petty bourgeois who is passport shaming the impoverished Black community.'”
Seales added that some of the backlash came from people who simply didn’t agree and were coming at her “in a disrespectful, uninformed fashion.”
“When people agree with you they’ll just like it and keep it moving, but when people don’t agree with you that’s when they come for your whole neck,” she told ESSENCE.
“So, I’ve got people coming at my neck, making up shit. I never said anything about Black people, literally zero, because the tweet wasn’t about us. It was just a general tweet about f–kboy behavior for the people. For everybody, grow up. If you think you’re popping and you’re out here fraudulently flossing and this is what you’re flossing with, guess what? You think you’re winning, you’re losing. You’re thinking too small.”