HBO’s ‘Seen & Heard’ Is The History Lesson Hollywood Needs

HBO’s ‘Seen & Heard’ Is The History Lesson Hollywood Needs

By Okla Jones ·Updated September 10, 2025 Getting your Trinity Audio player ready… For decades, Black performers, writers, and producers have fought to carve out space in an industry that too often overlooked or distorted their stories. Inclusion in Hollywood has never come easily, and television has long been a visual reflection of those struggles. From early portrayals built on stereotypes to today’s layered narratives, positive representation…

‘Seen & Heard’ traces the struggles of Black television

By: Stacy M. Brown, Black Press USA Issa Rae is once again betting on Black, this time by turning the lens on the complicated history of African American representation on television. Her new two-part HBO documentary, “Seen and Heard: The History of Black Television,” debuts September 9 on HBO and HBO Max, and it doesn’t shy away from exposing both the breakthroughs and the betrayals that have defined Black TV. The project, which began developme…