Issa Rae walked into Variety’s Power of Women event with an award waiting and no inspirational speech in her. So she scrapped the script and said what she actually meant:“This is all men’s fault.”She didn’t stop there, pointing directly at rich white men, calling out an industry that keeps eating itself, and describing a country that has, in her words,“just been countrying.”Even after all of that, she made one promise: she’s never going to stop trying.
The frustration makes more sense once you look at the receipts. Women directed 8.1% of the year’s top-grossing films, down from 13.4% in 2024. Women of color hit a record high of 5.4%, which only sounds like progress until you realize how low that ceiling has been sitting. Meanwhile, Black women earned 64 cents for every dollar white men earned in 2025, down a penny from the year before, and women still run just 11% of Fortune 500 companies.
What makes Rae’s speech land isn’t the shock value, it’s the source. She’s one of the most successful Black creators in Hollywood, and she’s telling a ballroom full of executives that even she hasn’t fully broken through. Actress and filmmaker Malynda Hale called that“almost kind of discouraging,”and plenty of people online agreed. So the conversation now isn’t really about one speech. It’s about funding gaps, narrow portrayals of Blackness on screen, AI threatening creative jobs, and whether building independent power is the only real way forward.
Do you think Rae was right, or did she go too far? Sound off in the comments.
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Local Lawton
Local Lawton is a contributor to LocalBeat, covering local news and community stories.