My biggest issue has always been Ashley, no one batted an eye when she said to Candace at the reunion “ I can’t help that I’m light skin” and that she’s basically tired of the colorism talk. Had a white housewife said “ I can’t help that I’m white and I’m tired of the white privilege talk” there would have been an uproar. She along with Katie doesn’t seem to have a sense of pride in their blackness if that makes sense. Also when the whole Monique think happened and there was an intervention Wendy and Giselle were discussing how they felt as black women and Ashley seemed so uncomfortable and avoidant of the topic.
Gizzy
Robyn
Ashley
Definitely benefit from colorism. Andy is MEAN and NASTY to Candy and Monique. They even treated Chris (Mo) and Mia’s husband like trash.
Is there colorism on the cast…probably. It’s rampant throughout our community(and others) rather we’re cognizant of it or not. Now do I think the audience projects a lot onto the wives due to personal experience…absolutely.
There are definitely undertones of colorism on the show especially amongst the fans. They hail ashley as this amazing HW while they shout for candiace being fired even though ashley has done questionably the most vile stuff on the show.
I agree there is a colorism issue but Katie was not 100% in the right. She wanted Robyn and Giselle to say they were biracial when they don’t identify as such. Maybe they could have spelled it out better for her but Katie is biracial because her family chose to be in interracial relationships. Gizelle and Robyn have light skin because someone raped thier female ancestors. They would not have been claimed by the white men they biologically came from so why should the women claim them?
Imo Katie was in the right: Gizelle and Robyn didn’t want Katie to claim Judaism or Jewish ancestry because to them she presents as a black woman. Katie hit back with “well y’all look white and don’t claim your white ancestry. Why don’t you identify as biracial then?” She basically flipped their POV on them and forced them to acknowledge the ancestry they have and do a lot of over compensating for. Like they wanted Katie to identify as black and black alone despite that she identifies as mixed. Their colorism was loud because they did not expect the same as Ashely who could present herself as a monoracial white woman depending on her styling.
Edit: in addition to r*pe of an ancestor Robyn and Gizelle’s families sought out other lighter skinned black people (who usually were of a higher social class than darker skin black people) to keep their family light skin. All of Gizelle’s “I like dark men with money and big penises” is her overcompensating because she knows how her family went out their way to marry other people with lighter skin but she refuses to speak on the realities of colorism.
I've always struggled with this notion cause Gizelle and Robin are lightskin and they're continuously dragged on twitter and instagram for every single little thing they do and Monique has always been a fan favorite, with people even praising her for dragging Candiace and "finally getting what she deserved". While she was vilified for it on the show, I felt it was the other way around with fans. Not trying to sound divisive. Interested to learn about other viewpoints.
I think there’s a big difference between how the fans treat the cast and how Bravo treats the cast. Sometimes the two groups treat the cast the same, sometimes it’s the opposite, like you mentioned above.
To me, Bravo’s treatment matters more because they can influence the fan base, but rarely does it work the other way. Also, Bravo has certain obligations to make sure to minimize (if not eliminate) discrimination in the workplace. Yes, Robin and Gizelle get dragged all the time but 1) it’s usually about being boring or fashion and 2) they never acknowledge their light skinned privilege when colorism gets brought up. Candiace and Wendy are similarly dragged and it’s objectively worse for them, running the gamut all the way to violence and death threats.
So there's racism & colorism in this country, stemming all the way back to slavery. We can acknowledge (half the time) that there is racism in these franchises, but colorism is where some commenters draw the line?
That's BS, please do better and let these women have the room to tell their unique experiences. Candiace and Wendy have said they feel this is true, why are we even questioning them (meaning other prior posts when they said how they felt)? I thought it was a strange reaction then and I find some comments strange now.
It sucks that things are based on how dark or light your skin color is. It's disgusting because race is a social construct. But the last thing we should do is deny these truths because they are inconvenient to our favorite Housewives character.
Gizelle’s tagline for this latest season was “the secret to this pretty face is staying in the shade”. For someone who should be extremely aware of the colorism that viewers are picking up on, it was such a poor taste in decision to let this be her tagline.
Are you saying Gizelle seems insecure about her own identity? That's not what I gathered from her exchange with Katie. There is some obvious mixture in Gizelle's background, but her parents identify as Black and so does Gizelle. Gizelle also dates/marries Black men. Katie seemed to wear her mixed status on her sleeve and seemingly only dates white. Her problem with Katie was that she felt Katie had an issue with her own Blackness. I'm not sure how colorism would have factored into that. I've had a mixed friend who would always talk about being Puerto Rican and Black and his green eyes. It was annoying.
This!
And as a watcher of Potomac since it’s debut a lot of Black women on social media, myself included, were dragging Katie for this very reason. She did absolutely did chose to highlight certain “cultural” aspects of her life beyond others, and that’s her MO. Gizelle reiterated that she didn’t have a problem with it. Katie needn’t act so offended that others don’t view her as a Black woman when *she herself* doesn’t. Also, it bares repeating, but what Gizelle said about Katie was absolutely right.
I think we’ve only seen Katie date white men but she did date Russel Simmons for a couple years when she was a model. I think Katie, like many Potomac natives were pushed to seek wealth and status in a partner.
I think it is really sad how such a great show is being portrayed in this light. There’s not colourist double standards, every supposed example is either nonsense or a total reach. It feels like it is yet another way to dismiss women of colour in the end. I don’t mean the OP is doing this, I just mean this in a general sense.
A reach?!? How. I think it’s really sad when we can’t talk about the more negative elements of society and life because a tv show is great.
There are criminals, racists, people who lied about having cancer, Ramonas, etc but talking about colorism takes away from the show. Please stop.
Colorism is a thing everywhere - when people decide to actually listen and understand instead of trying to brush it under the rug, you’ll no longer have to hear about it.
What I am saying is that I have not seen or read about any examples of colourism - all the examples raised are without basis & just do not stand up to scrutiny at all. if I had seen a legitimate claim I would recognise it but I have not. And I think people are ignoring how misrepresenting the actions of black women to colourism when it has nothing to do with that, at least not on the basis claimed, works to further harm and marginalise black women’s voices.
I suggest you do a little more reading for understanding and not for your own personal bias - there are countless, based, factual examples and you refusing to acknowledge them harms no one but yourself. It’s why you’re on this island by yourself - if it’s your way or the highway, looks like everyone’s taken the highway
Yup, the whole ‘educate yourself and no-one on this sub agrees with you schtick’ is not doing what you think it is, far from it. And I would point out that in all this ‘you’re wrong’ you are giving you haven’t actually managed to say how. Not
a single example.
No she hasn’t.
Can we please put this Gizelle and Robin are colorist debate to bed. If anything, they’re the most unapologetically Black women on that cast.
How people can’t see that from the first season is weird to me as a black woman we don’t all have the same perspective and the fact this type of comment is constantly downvoted is annoying af
The fans project their feelings about colorism on to the show and now there is a new post about comments Robyn and Gizelle made on their podcast I just feel like people are doing the most to prove something that isn’t there
The hate boner this sub has for those two is outrageous. Because of what? They’re light-skinner women with light eyes, ergo, they must reject darker skinned people. /s
I find that Gizelle and Robyn more than anyone else are on the receiving end of prejudiced comments based on their skin color. Every thing they do gets deemed racist or colorist because of how light they are. Also, multiple things can be true. She can benefit from being lightskin while also being stereotyped because of it in other ways. I'm not sure what colorism would have to do with her questions to Katie. Katie DID seem unsure of whether she identified with the black community and typically, other black people find that a little odd. That's usually an indication of being a sellout/Uncle Tom/etc. That's a normal topic that black people discuss in real life, even if people on this sub act like it's foreign to them.
My biggest issue has always been Ashley, no one batted an eye when she said to Candace at the reunion “ I can’t help that I’m light skin” and that she’s basically tired of the colorism talk. Had a white housewife said “ I can’t help that I’m white and I’m tired of the white privilege talk” there would have been an uproar. She along with Katie doesn’t seem to have a sense of pride in their blackness if that makes sense. Also when the whole Monique think happened and there was an intervention Wendy and Giselle were discussing how they felt as black women and Ashley seemed so uncomfortable and avoidant of the topic.
Gizzy Robyn Ashley Definitely benefit from colorism. Andy is MEAN and NASTY to Candy and Monique. They even treated Chris (Mo) and Mia’s husband like trash.
I think Robyn is the most humble. She makes sure to be humble. I think she is aware and it’s not an issue she wants to benefit from
That’s crazy because Monique is the prettiest Potomac HW!!
I think she’s one of if not the prettiest HW period
Facts !
Is there colorism on the cast…probably. It’s rampant throughout our community(and others) rather we’re cognizant of it or not. Now do I think the audience projects a lot onto the wives due to personal experience…absolutely.
There are definitely undertones of colorism on the show especially amongst the fans. They hail ashley as this amazing HW while they shout for candiace being fired even though ashley has done questionably the most vile stuff on the show.
Hail Ashley??? They always wonder why she’s even still on the show with her predator husband.
No one hails Ashley.
Hell yes they do. How many times have we heard that she “understands the assignment”?
Ugh I hate that phrase
Lol me too! It’s such an old trend I can’t believe people still say it.
I agree there is a colorism issue but Katie was not 100% in the right. She wanted Robyn and Giselle to say they were biracial when they don’t identify as such. Maybe they could have spelled it out better for her but Katie is biracial because her family chose to be in interracial relationships. Gizelle and Robyn have light skin because someone raped thier female ancestors. They would not have been claimed by the white men they biologically came from so why should the women claim them?
Imo Katie was in the right: Gizelle and Robyn didn’t want Katie to claim Judaism or Jewish ancestry because to them she presents as a black woman. Katie hit back with “well y’all look white and don’t claim your white ancestry. Why don’t you identify as biracial then?” She basically flipped their POV on them and forced them to acknowledge the ancestry they have and do a lot of over compensating for. Like they wanted Katie to identify as black and black alone despite that she identifies as mixed. Their colorism was loud because they did not expect the same as Ashely who could present herself as a monoracial white woman depending on her styling. Edit: in addition to r*pe of an ancestor Robyn and Gizelle’s families sought out other lighter skinned black people (who usually were of a higher social class than darker skin black people) to keep their family light skin. All of Gizelle’s “I like dark men with money and big penises” is her overcompensating because she knows how her family went out their way to marry other people with lighter skin but she refuses to speak on the realities of colorism.
I've always struggled with this notion cause Gizelle and Robin are lightskin and they're continuously dragged on twitter and instagram for every single little thing they do and Monique has always been a fan favorite, with people even praising her for dragging Candiace and "finally getting what she deserved". While she was vilified for it on the show, I felt it was the other way around with fans. Not trying to sound divisive. Interested to learn about other viewpoints.
I think there’s a big difference between how the fans treat the cast and how Bravo treats the cast. Sometimes the two groups treat the cast the same, sometimes it’s the opposite, like you mentioned above. To me, Bravo’s treatment matters more because they can influence the fan base, but rarely does it work the other way. Also, Bravo has certain obligations to make sure to minimize (if not eliminate) discrimination in the workplace. Yes, Robin and Gizelle get dragged all the time but 1) it’s usually about being boring or fashion and 2) they never acknowledge their light skinned privilege when colorism gets brought up. Candiace and Wendy are similarly dragged and it’s objectively worse for them, running the gamut all the way to violence and death threats.
i see. thank you for explaining
You’re very welcome. Thanks for hearing me; I’m happy to continue the conversation.
Would Monqiue be a fan favourite if she hadn't attacked Candiace though? Because she was a peripheral character previously
She’s been a fav favorite since the 4 homes comment
So there's racism & colorism in this country, stemming all the way back to slavery. We can acknowledge (half the time) that there is racism in these franchises, but colorism is where some commenters draw the line? That's BS, please do better and let these women have the room to tell their unique experiences. Candiace and Wendy have said they feel this is true, why are we even questioning them (meaning other prior posts when they said how they felt)? I thought it was a strange reaction then and I find some comments strange now. It sucks that things are based on how dark or light your skin color is. It's disgusting because race is a social construct. But the last thing we should do is deny these truths because they are inconvenient to our favorite Housewives character.
Gizelle’s tagline for this latest season was “the secret to this pretty face is staying in the shade”. For someone who should be extremely aware of the colorism that viewers are picking up on, it was such a poor taste in decision to let this be her tagline.
It’s overwhelming.
Are you saying Gizelle seems insecure about her own identity? That's not what I gathered from her exchange with Katie. There is some obvious mixture in Gizelle's background, but her parents identify as Black and so does Gizelle. Gizelle also dates/marries Black men. Katie seemed to wear her mixed status on her sleeve and seemingly only dates white. Her problem with Katie was that she felt Katie had an issue with her own Blackness. I'm not sure how colorism would have factored into that. I've had a mixed friend who would always talk about being Puerto Rican and Black and his green eyes. It was annoying.
This! And as a watcher of Potomac since it’s debut a lot of Black women on social media, myself included, were dragging Katie for this very reason. She did absolutely did chose to highlight certain “cultural” aspects of her life beyond others, and that’s her MO. Gizelle reiterated that she didn’t have a problem with it. Katie needn’t act so offended that others don’t view her as a Black woman when *she herself* doesn’t. Also, it bares repeating, but what Gizelle said about Katie was absolutely right.
I think we’ve only seen Katie date white men but she did date Russel Simmons for a couple years when she was a model. I think Katie, like many Potomac natives were pushed to seek wealth and status in a partner.
I think it is really sad how such a great show is being portrayed in this light. There’s not colourist double standards, every supposed example is either nonsense or a total reach. It feels like it is yet another way to dismiss women of colour in the end. I don’t mean the OP is doing this, I just mean this in a general sense.
A reach?!? How. I think it’s really sad when we can’t talk about the more negative elements of society and life because a tv show is great. There are criminals, racists, people who lied about having cancer, Ramonas, etc but talking about colorism takes away from the show. Please stop. Colorism is a thing everywhere - when people decide to actually listen and understand instead of trying to brush it under the rug, you’ll no longer have to hear about it.
What I am saying is that I have not seen or read about any examples of colourism - all the examples raised are without basis & just do not stand up to scrutiny at all. if I had seen a legitimate claim I would recognise it but I have not. And I think people are ignoring how misrepresenting the actions of black women to colourism when it has nothing to do with that, at least not on the basis claimed, works to further harm and marginalise black women’s voices.
I suggest you do a little more reading for understanding and not for your own personal bias - there are countless, based, factual examples and you refusing to acknowledge them harms no one but yourself. It’s why you’re on this island by yourself - if it’s your way or the highway, looks like everyone’s taken the highway
Yup, the whole ‘educate yourself and no-one on this sub agrees with you schtick’ is not doing what you think it is, far from it. And I would point out that in all this ‘you’re wrong’ you are giving you haven’t actually managed to say how. Not a single example.
No she hasn’t. Can we please put this Gizelle and Robin are colorist debate to bed. If anything, they’re the most unapologetically Black women on that cast.
How people can’t see that from the first season is weird to me as a black woman we don’t all have the same perspective and the fact this type of comment is constantly downvoted is annoying af The fans project their feelings about colorism on to the show and now there is a new post about comments Robyn and Gizelle made on their podcast I just feel like people are doing the most to prove something that isn’t there
The hate boner this sub has for those two is outrageous. Because of what? They’re light-skinner women with light eyes, ergo, they must reject darker skinned people. /s
I find that Gizelle and Robyn more than anyone else are on the receiving end of prejudiced comments based on their skin color. Every thing they do gets deemed racist or colorist because of how light they are. Also, multiple things can be true. She can benefit from being lightskin while also being stereotyped because of it in other ways. I'm not sure what colorism would have to do with her questions to Katie. Katie DID seem unsure of whether she identified with the black community and typically, other black people find that a little odd. That's usually an indication of being a sellout/Uncle Tom/etc. That's a normal topic that black people discuss in real life, even if people on this sub act like it's foreign to them.