Drawback consuming isn’t the one downside. That was instantly clear to Williams, a lawyer and TV host who, in 2021, turned the primary Black solid member on RHONY. (Many different cities had featured Black Housewives, although casts at that time have been largely segregated by race; Beverly Hills, New York, Dallas, New Jersey, and Orange County have been largely white; Atlanta and Potomac largely Black.) A digital training session earlier than filming season 13 coated matters together with “Black Girls” (“How Black ladies 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 while you say one thing offensive? How do you progress ahead in that relationship?”). Williams, McSweeney, Morgan, Singer, and de Lesseps have 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, in line with McSweeney and Williams, Morgan commented on the pure hair of the Black lady main the session.
Williams, 40, interpreted the assembly as a “cowl your ass” transfer—she says it largely centered on the sorts of issues solid 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 mentioned through the assembly, in line with Williams. “Most of them don’t.” The RHONY publicist, who can be Black, informed Singer that she has a father, however Singer mentioned she’d learn a examine that confirmed that the majority Black kids don’t. McSweeney corroborates Williams’s account. “The coaching included ‘open dialogue,’ ” Singer mentioned to VF. “In that spirit, I requested a query a few statistic I had examine single-parent households, the place kids with single-parent households have 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 corresponding to dick, which they attributed to their backgrounds as “churchgoing” and “conservative.” Williams mentioned that she had no discomfort with sexual language, noting she was probably the most educated individual on the desk, with a BA and a JD. De Lesseps, who’s a highschool graduate and licensed nurse, mentioned, “I don’t like the way in which you speak.” When Singer additionally received upset, Williams mentioned, “Your white fragility is killing me proper now,” then needed to clarify the time period.
De Lesseps referred to as Williams an “offended lady,” which Williams understood implicitly: an offended Black lady. “I by no means referred to your shade,” de Lesseps mentioned. Williams left, Singer stayed behind. The scene that viewers noticed ended there. However the emotional momentum continued. One of many individuals who remained informed Vainness Honest, “Ramona slammed her arms on the desk. She goes, ‘Because of this we didn’t want Black folks on the present…. That is gonna break our present.’ ” (Singer emailed VF this “completely” didn’t occur. “The truth is, I supported including numerous solid members properly earlier than earlier than [sic] Eboni was added.”)
The recent 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 mentioned the present didn’t want Black folks. On October 24, 2020, Cohen responded by way of e mail, “These are unimaginable reads and can be superb episodes. The truth that this specific journey by white fragility ends with Ramona DM’ing Bryan Cranston is subsequent stage.”
That season, Singer additionally allegedly informed a Black lady staffer, “There’s so a lot of you guys right here now, please don’t change your hair as I’m not gonna be capable of bear in mind anyone’s names.” Singer says this was the type of factor she generally did: “It was a [sic] strictly a commentary on my lack of ability 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 believed he was Jax Taylor,” she emailed Vainness Honest, referring to a Vanderpump Guidelines solid member. In response to two folks acquainted with 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.”)