Haters, imagined or real, are integral to the Atlanta posture

[TMC]

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...-donald-glover

"Wherever Atlanta goes, it will circle around the fear of fraudulence that plagues this Black artist-not-artist," says Doreen St. Félix in reflecting on Season 3 so far. "The series has a complicated relationship to its Black audience. Recent episode descriptions ventriloquize viewer complaints, as in 'I’ve definitely seen this before on a better show,' for 'White Fashion.' It breaks the fourth wall by casting figures like Chet Hanks and Liam Neeson, who are known for wild racial faux pas, as exaggerated versions of themselves—a move that might feel genuinely anarchic, or cheap, depending on the viewer. Haters, imagined or real, are integral to the Atlanta posture. The show is spiritually conflicted, attuned to the equivocations that Black artists must make in the process of creation, and that Black viewers must make in the course of consumption."