Real Housewives & Race

I watch a lot of pointless, mindless television shows at night when I’m shutting down for the day. I don’t have any particular favorite show to watch so generally I flip around and watch whatever looks interesting. One of my guilty pleasures is the “Real Housewives of...” series on Bravo. There are shows from all around the country; Beverly Hills, New York, Orange County, D.C., Miami and Atlanta. These women live luxurious lives and spend all of their husband’s hard earned money. The reason I enjoy watching the shows is seeing how these women live and the drama they tend to create between one another. I’ve watched most of the seasons except two; Miami and Atlanta. Two things these shows have in common are they have mainly Latino and African-American housewives. 


I had a conversation with my mom recently because she too is an Real Housewives fan. She admitted to not watching Atlanta either because she wasn’t as interested with it. When we both agreed that neither of us enjoyed watching it, it made us feel bad and really question why we don’t watch it. I asked if it’s because it’s a group of African-American women and if it bothered her! She replied truthfully and said yes. It isn't a racist thing at all with my mom but she is the age of these women and she said she couldn't identify with that culture. That is respectable and probably pretty common among a lot of mothers/housewives who watch the show. 


I took some days off from writing and I came back with a new outlook on the housewives of Atlanta. I was doing homework and ended up watching a good portion of the episode last night. I really enjoyed it and was pleasantly surprised. The race thing is something that will never fully go away.