Granted there are some Black and Latino women whose true personality does reflect this behavior but there are so many more who have the ability to carry themselves as ladies without weave snatching and slapping their girlfriends. The question of why do you care LJ Knight was posed to me. A good question indeed. None of these women are my family members or friends of mine or even associates. Why should I care about them looking like fools on TV for the world to see? Well pumpkins, I care because I think Black women are some of the baddest chicks on the planet. We have naturally what so many other women of other cultures want which is why they get cosmetically altered to acquire it. When we are portrayed in a manner that is unbecoming it bothers me. It bothers the sh*t out of me to be exact. White women can go on and act a fool and slap one another on TV if they chose to and what will people say? They will say “Oh Sara and Trudy, they are always fighting and behaving like fools”. Black or Latino women can behave in the same manner and what will be said is something greatly different. More like “Oh, THOSE people are always fighting and acting a fool. What is it with them?” See the difference?

White women are judged individually for their own idiotic behavior while ethnic women are immediately judged as having some character flaw that ALL women of that race must share. I know that not everyone thinks like this. There are plenty of people who are able to judge people individually by their own behavior. But there are even more who are not. Especially the ones who do not have any interaction with people of color in their day to day. So VH1 might be their only window into the world of Black or Latino women. They ignorantly watch these shows and truly think that this must be how all Black women behave. Why shouldn’t they when the majority of the more popular shows with an ethnic cast are “cooning” out for millions to see?

A Black Woman’s Guide To Surviving In A White Corporate America

Well LJ, these women are just getting their money. Besides, you know most of what you see on reality TV is not real. True. I do know that most of what is portrayed on reality TV is contrived for entertainment. But again, what about those who have no clue? Those who watch this and are naive enough to believe that this is REALITY? I also am aware that these people get paid large sums of cash to show their a** figuratively and literally on these reality shows. Which brings me to my next set of questions. At what cost would you sell your character? How much is it worth? Is it worth $600,000 for someone to film your life day to day and throughout most of it you look like a damn zoo animal who cannot control or express her emotions without having a filthy mouth and the behavior to match?

We can all act as though it would not be a tempting invitation but the truth of the matter is that many people have fallen victim to it. Black women in particular. As of recently there is Housewives of ATL, Love And Hip-Hop, Basketball Wives, College Hill, Baldwin Hills, Football Wives. Housewives of Atlanta leads the way as being one of the first to display Black women as utter b**tches with Nee-Nee Leakes and Sheree Whitfield paving the way. Other networks obviously saw that this formula worked and voila! Now we cannot escape this type of portrayal of Black women after 7 p.m.

For the sake of argument, I know that there are other reality shows that have White women doing the same childish things but let me reitterate that this will not affect how they are ultimately judged as White women. A White women can be the biggest whore in the world and still be seen as a treasure to be held by society and the public at large. They are put on a pedestal from the time of birth and it takes a hell of a lot or work for them to ever be knocked off that pedestal. Again, they are usually judged individually by society not as a whole. People don’t say “Oh those White women can never get along.” They say “Oh Sara and Trudy can never get along.”

I suppose it is unfair of me to ask that Black and Latino women behave a certain way in order for society to not judge them harshly. To ask them to behave like they have respect for themselves and one another at all times for fear that they will be damaging the reputations of other ethnic women around the world. Perhaps this is too heavy a burden to carry for some and for that I apologize. We were not asked to be dealt these cards we simply must learn how to have the winning hand despite all of the odds. Ethnic ladies, I know that it is not your sole responsibility per se to be the representative of how the world sees us. I do. I can only ask that you take pride in that representation because YOU want to.