A Necessary Woke Bae Addition: Insecure's Kendrick Sampson

There are a few things we know about actor Kendrick Sampson: He plays Issa’s new love interest Nathan on Insecure. 2) He starred in How to Get Away with Murder. 3) He looks great without a shirt. 4) He’s a bae. 5) He’s woke. There are other things about him, but those are of the utmost importance. Because he is woke, and because is a bae, Sampson often uses his platform to bring attention to big issues (lead in the water supply, police brutality, #SchoolsNotPrisons) and to offer earnest messages of support for women and those in need, thus using his powers for good. Unfortunately, Kara Brown isn’t here to deliver this woke bae unto you, so I must dispatch him in her honor.

What’s honorable about the photo Sampson published to Instagram today (Monday) is that it starts with “READ to the end”—and he is absolutely right. Reading until the end of the post is essential to capturing the full effect of his message. Sampson starts off SLAMMING his Insecure character Nathan’ for his lack of communication and then bleeds into how men need to “do better for our women” and “lift them up.” And then: “We need to retrain ourselves to know that expressing vulnerability and emotion is not a weakness.”

This casually segues into a missive about toxic masculinity and, of course, Supreme Court justice nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Sampson writes: “Let[’s] challenge ourselves to be better in this area every day, let’s start TODAY with every man (everyone but particularly men) who reads this calling their senator to demand an end to this nomination to Supreme Court #StopKavanaugh.” Followed by: BLACK FIST EMOJI. BLACK POWER EMOJI. FLAMES EMOJI. Welcome to the club, Kendrick.