Unless you worked for your letters, you can’t wear the crest! At least that’s what some members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. feel after seeing Amanda Seales dripping in AKA paraphernalia in the Insecure season 5 premiere.
The first episode of the final season of Insecure premiered on HBO on Sunday, and many members of the Divine Nine couldn’t help but notice how Seales’ character Tiffany DuBois
was decked out in pink and green and actual AKA gear.DuBois is a fictional character who is an alum of Stanford University and a proud AKA. Throughout the show’s previous seasons, it was no secret that DuBois was an AKA. However, costume designers made sure to avoid putting the character in actual AKA para since she’s not a real soror.
In the season 5 premiere, DuBois went all out with the AKA para and even wore the organization’s official shield and Greek letters.
While it’s a nice gesture and nod to the first Black sorority,
there are a large number of Divine Nine members who don’t think it’s appropriate to wear their organization’s crest and logo if they’re not actual members. One outspoken AKA took to Twitter to blast the popular show for the “disrespect” she felt was displayed toward her organization.“Okay so hold up,” one AKA wrote on Twitter while tagging Issa Rae and the official “Insecure” account. “This girl is not a Soror and had my SHIELD on her body?! [Issa Rae] [Insecure HBO] please do not do that again. That’s wildly disrespectful!”
“The pink and green outfits were cool but don’t have her actually wearing our letters and shield. I don’t like that at all,” she added.
After coming under fire from angry AKA’s, Seales took to Instagram to explain that she was only portraying a fictional character who is an AKA.
Issa Rae even responded to the upset AKA and jokingly said the show would be edited to avoid showcasing any AKA para in the future.
“Oh sh*t, let me tell [HBO] to delete one of the upcoming episodes then, hold on,” Rae wrote in a tweet.
It’s safe to say that show creators and costume designers need to tread lightly when depicting real-life Black Greek organizations in their shows, but not all comments were negative.
Many of the show’s supporters and fellow Greek-letter organization members called the post out, saying that Seales is an actress portraying a character, and no disrespect was shown since it’s a licensing arrangement that has to be approved by the national organization.