Amanda Seales Felt “Interrogated” During ‘Club Shay Shay’ Interview, Clarifies Autism Spectrum Claims
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Following Amanda Seales’ viral Club Shay Shay interview with Shannon Sharpe, 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.”
See Amanda’s responses above and below.
Sharpe responded to the backlash of his interview with Seales on his latest episode of Nightcap with Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson and Gilbert Arenas. The retired NFL star praised the actress for her “high intelligence” but also added that he believes that she thinks “everyone is out to get her.”
“Until she’s comfortable with you, she’s gon’ keep that guard up,” he said. “I asked her for a hug earlier. she’s like ‘nah, I don’t hug.’ Once I told her, ‘this is a safe space, you can tell your story,’ she paused then she’s like, ‘Can I have a hug?’ and then she was cool.”
“People are like, ‘I was trying to invalidate her experience,’ and no I wasn’t,” he spoke of Seales sharing her experience with racism while acting as a child star. “I said, ‘maybe Amanda, it wasn’t racism, maybe it was the fact that a child was correcting an adult.’ But that was her experience. That’s how she felt about it.”
Sharpe did note that, overall, he enjoyed the interview.
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