Drawback consuming isn’t the one downside. That was instantly clear to Williams, a lawyer and TV host who, in 2021, grew to become the primary Black forged member on RHONY. (Many different cities had featured Black Housewives, although casts at that time had been largely segregated by race; Beverly Hills, New York, Dallas, New Jersey, and Orange County had been largely white; Atlanta and Potomac largely Black.) A digital schooling session earlier than filming season 13 coated subjects together with “Black Girls” (“How Black girls are handled in bigger society and the Black group”), “Microaggressions” (“What are they? How do you acknowledge them?”), “Lexicon” (“Acceptable vs. Dangerous/Offensive language”), and “Missteps” (“What to do whenever you say one thing offensive? How do you progress ahead in that relationship?”). Williams, McSweeney, Morgan, Singer, and de Lesseps had been on the decision, in addition to an NBCUniversal communications government, a Bravo publicist, and two representatives from a racial justice group. Williams had by no means beforehand met Morgan or Singer. Earlier than the one-hour session formally started, based on McSweeney and Williams, Morgan commented on the pure hair of the Black girl main the session.
Williams, 40, interpreted the assembly as a “cowl your ass” transfer—she says it largely targeted on the sorts of issues forged members ought to keep away from saying, just like the racist trope that Black fathers should not current for his or her kids. “What in the event that they don’t have a father? Why can’t I say that?” Singer stated through the assembly, based on Williams. “Most of them don’t.” The RHONY publicist, who can also be Black, informed Singer that she has a father, however Singer stated she’d learn a examine that confirmed that almost all Black kids don’t. McSweeney corroborates Williams’s account. “The coaching included ‘open dialogue,’ ” Singer stated to VF. “In that spirit, I requested a query a couple of statistic I had examine single-parent households, the place kids with single-parent households had been statistically much less prone to succeed than two-parent households.”
Later, whereas filming a scene that did air, de Lesseps and Singer expressed on digicam their squeamishness round phrases similar to dick, which they attributed to their backgrounds as “churchgoing” and “conservative.” Williams stated that she had no discomfort with sexual language, noting she was essentially the most educated particular person on the desk, with a BA and a JD. De Lesseps, who’s a highschool graduate and licensed nurse, stated, “I don’t like the way in which you speak.” When Singer additionally acquired upset, Williams stated, “Your white fragility is killing me proper now,” then needed to clarify the time period.
De Lesseps referred to as Williams an “indignant girl,” which Williams understood implicitly: an indignant Black girl. “I by no means referred to your colour,” de Lesseps stated. Williams left, Singer stayed behind. The scene that viewers noticed ended there. However the emotional momentum continued. One of many individuals who remained informed Self-importance Honest, “Ramona slammed her arms on the desk. She goes, ‘That is why we didn’t want Black individuals on the present…. That is gonna smash our present.’ ” (Singer emailed VF this “completely” didn’t occur. “Actually, I supported including numerous forged members properly earlier than earlier than [sic] Eboni was added.”)
The new sheet went out a number of days later to a bunch that included Cohen and different NBCU executives. It didn’t observe, nonetheless, that Singer allegedly stated the present didn’t want Black individuals. On October 24, 2020, Cohen responded through e mail, “These are unbelievable reads and will probably be wonderful episodes. The truth that this specific journey via white fragility ends with Ramona DM’ing Bryan Cranston is subsequent degree.”
That season, Singer additionally allegedly informed a Black girl staffer, “There’s so lots of you guys right here now, please don’t change your hair as I’m not gonna have the ability to bear in mind anyone’s names.” Singer says this was the form of factor she generally did: “It was a [sic] strictly a commentary on my incapability to recollect names. […] For instance, simply final week I noticed a photograph with me and Travis Kelce from 2016 on Watch What Occurs Dwell and I assumed he was Jax Taylor,” she emailed Self-importance Honest, referring to a Vanderpump Guidelines forged member. In line with two individuals aware of manufacturing, Singer exclaimed, “There’s so many Black chicks!” (Singer denies saying this, although footage that aired within the season reveals her utilizing the phrase “Black chicks.”)