5 Reasons Why Lena Waithe's Character on Master Of None Is So Important

How many out black queer women are in the entertainment industry for younger queer WOC to look up to? If it takes you a Google search to figure out how few there are, then that only intensifies the fact that we need more queer WOC in entertainment. 

Aziz Ansari’s casting of Lena Waithe, an accomplished writer and producer, in his new show, Master of None, is the most important move us POC queer females have seen this year.

1. Lena Waithe is a queer woman of color…playing a queer woman of color.

If you’re a gay woman of color you understand how rare this role is. You should google it and then check your privilege and realize what a big fucking deal this is.

2. Lena Waithe has natural hair that she wears naturally.

It’s rare when you see a woman of color wearing her hair naturally for an entire season on a show. Kudos to Lena and her epic top bun.

3. Lena Waithe as Denise wears the clothes that Lena would normally wear.

We were surprised to find out that she had a costume designer on this show because she legit wears exactly what we see on her Instagram.

4. Lena Waithe says the absolute best shit a lesbian has ever said on a TV show. Ever.

Enough said.

5. Lena Waithe is breaking out from her producer role.

So many queer people and POC (but more importantly, queer POC) don’t ever have the chance to break out from behind the camera as writers and producers, but Lena was able to do that, and do it gracefully.

Briana Gonzalez lives and works in San Francisco with her girlfriend and their two pugs. Follower her on Instagram and Twitter.