Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kandi Burruss sat down for a chat with Hello Beautiful to address criticism against those out there who feel the #1 reality show on Bravo is perpetuating stereotypes against black women.
Says Kandi, Before I even joined the show everybody was talking about how it brought down the image of black people and black women. But I always tell people when you come on a reality show you’re not trying to represent for a whole race, you’re just doing you. You hope people think you’re interesting and people like it. The one thing people don’t give as far as our series, The Real housewives of Atlanta; we are a majority black cast on a network that doesn’t have that many shows featuring African Americans. So for us to be the number one show on that network…..why people don’t give us any props for that, I don’t even understand.
Yes, it does play into the stereotype of what people say black women are with the neck popping, finger rolling or whatever but I don’t feel like it’s any different than the New Jersey Housewives where it’s mostly Italian Americans on there. What they do on that show? It’s a lot of hot headed Italians on that show but I don’t see their communities saying “ Oh, they’re not representing us Italian Americans correctly or they’re not representing white women correctly.”
I feel like we as black people can be very critical of our own race and I don’t even think it should be a thing of “How are they representing us?” Guess what? If you had a camera on you for six months and they taped as much as they wanted to tape and edited it down, I’m sure they’re going to have some moments where you’re showing out too.
People need to realize that whenever you cast for a show you always cast people with larger than life personalities, otherwise you wouldn't watch the show. There have been many shows that have shown black men and women in a positive light, and let's keep it real - a lot of you don't watch. Drama and conflict bring the ratings, and if you wanted positive portrayals of black women, a lot of you wouldn't choose NeNe as your favorite reality star and would be watching OWN. So overall I agree with Kandi's comment on how minorities can be very critical of our own. Italian Americans ranted and raved about the negative portrayals of their own on Jersey Shore, but I haven't heard anything about Real Housewives of New Jersey. There are stereotypes in every race, and I think we need to worry more about getting more shows with black people (and gays) on TV and worry less about being portrayed in a negative light.
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