Bravo has been having a rough go in the last few months. More critics call attention to their alleged misdeeds seemingly every week. The criticism culminated recently in an exposé from Vanity Fair that explored the Housewives franchises, among others.
The article was divided into a few major sections. One of these was Bethenny Frankel’s perspective as the self-appointed leader of the oncoming reality reckoning. Another section dealt with fellow Real Housewives of New York alum, Eboni K. Williams, and her experiences with racism on set.
After the article, Eboni said, “F**k Bethenny Frankel. You think I’m going to let some white girl speak for me?” Bethenny tried to pull out receipts from three years ago when Eboni praised her but to minimal effect. Now, Eboni is reflecting on the experience in its entirety.
Eboni feels justice thanks to RHONY producer
Eboni spoke with TheGrio on November 8, saying she felt “Vindicated,” after Vanity Fair’s article. She added, “Not that I needed it, but it’s nice. It’s unfortunate that as a Black woman in America, it takes all of this to cut through the noise, to cut through the anti-Blackness, to cut through the blind eyes for the sake of white comfort under the guise of entertainment.”
However, there was also a lot of pain behind the VF piece. Eboni explained, “I found revisiting all of it for the Vanity Fair piece to be extremely re-traumatizing and more re-traumatizing than I anticipated.” For example, bringing up Ramona Singer’s micro and macroaggressions, such as when she called Eboni “an angry woman,” and used the n-word with a Black producer.
“Everything that I said had been said before,” Eboni reminded the news outlet. “What is different, however, is corroboration, specifically from the Black producer who Singer allegedly used the n-word with … I was very publicly corroborated by a very courageous, brave, Black woman named Darian, who, for the first time, went on public record to speak her truth.”
Thanks to Darian, Eboni said her critics could no longer “gaslight and dismiss my words.” As for Bethenny, Eboni said, “All I care about is impact … The very last thing I need in this entire world is a white woman looking to hijack and ‘whitesplain’ my experience and narrative. Period.”
TELL US – WHAT DO YOU THINK OF EBONI’S THOUGHTS ON THE VANITY FAIR PIECE? AND HER RESPONSE TO BETHENNY?
