Real Housewives of New York's Eboni K. Williams is getting backlash over "boring" racial discourse from the same critics who complained about the show's lack of diversity

VICE

"In the nine episodes of RHONY season 13 that have aired so far, conversations on race have been front and center," says Alex Zaragoza. "That’s in large part due to the addition of a new cast member, Eboni K. Williams, a family law and civil litigation lawyer and broadcaster who hosts the podcast Holding Court. A former host on Fox News Specialists, she is the first Black woman to be cast on the show. And after a long history of very white rich ladies doing things like peeing in corn mazes and sniping about someone’s 'Herman Munster shoes,' she's taking her castmates to task when it comes to important topics. It’s not going over well. From the start, it's been clear that Williams wanted to approach the RHONY platform not just as a vehicle for sharing her life, but also for airing the issues that matter to her as a Black woman—a necessary step following the events of last year and in response to Bravo long falling short when it comes to race. It’s made this season occasionally hard to stomach as Williams attempts to lead her co-stars Ramona Singer and Luann de Lesseps to a greater degree of awareness about the Black experience. In the process of explaining topics like white fragility, microaggressions, and white supremacy, she’s been on the receiving end of those very aggressions, culminating in a blow-out this week that led Singer to yell, 'Am I supposed to apologize for being white?' Oof. Brutal. Williams’ entry into the chaotic world of Housewives was welcome news following discussions from fans and critics (including myself) about the extreme lack of diversity and entrenched racism across Bravo’s flagship series (and others). Those conversations—along with attempts to cast women from non-white backgrounds in their historically white-as-hell franchises, including Crystal Kung Minkoff on Real Housewives of Beverly Hills and Tiffany Moon on Real Housewives of Dallas—have been bubbling for years, but the reckoning that came after the murder of George Floyd created a bigger groundswell. People were loud in their demands for greater inclusion and open discussions on race and racism on reality TV shows like Real Housewives and The Bachelor, calling for greater care from producers and respective networks when it comes to handling these matters. We wanted our favorite tequila-soda-lime-swigging loose cannons to learn something: to be transparent about their privilege and their politics, to open up their predominantly white circle to some color, to be better. But now, many viewers (and even critics) seem to be annoyed with that." Vulture writer Brian Moylan called Williams a "schoolmarm" that was responsible for “one of the most boring episodes of Real Housewives of New York City in modern memory." Williams responded to Moylan, writing: “Contrary to popular belief, I am in no way introducing race for the first time on The Real Housewives of New York. In fact, The Real Housewives of New York has always prominently featured race all seasons, every episode. That race happened to be white. And so my insistence to move the central focus away from whiteness and to have the audacity to center Blackness, feels boring or uncomfortable and even unwatchable for some?” ALSO: Real Housewives of New York's reunion is on hold amid the fan backlash and low ratings.