Lisa Wu-Hartwell of ATL Housewives has beef with people who call them “ghetto” for their antics while the New York and Orange County housewives are deemed “entertaining”. She believes that black people are held to a higher standard that is unfair and doesn’t allow them room to make errors {to be human}.
Here are excerpts of her Essence interview:
ESSENCE.COM: The ATL “Housewives” show will be returning for a second season and is the highest rated of the “Housewives” franchise. It seems that the other shows are following the Georgia Peach lead for great ratings.
HARTWELL: Absolutely, they do. There’s always a double standard. Perhaps, we are held to a higher standard of excellence but real situations happen. It’s just unfair that people pass judgment and call our show ghetto but when they talk about the women Orange County or New York or New Jersey shows they call it entertainment. I believe that the way that we’ve been raised as Black people—always keeping secrets in our family and really witnessing Black women go through it—that we are judged harshly. For instance, there’s a teaser for the New Jersey show where one of the women flips over a table in the restaurant. Now had any of us done that we probably would have lost some viewers and been told that we lack class. Unfortunately, certain behaviors are more accepted from our counterparts than they are among us. So tell me is their show ghetto or simply entertainment? People need to understand that ghetto isn’t a color, it’s a state of mind and being.
There very well may be a double standard. But clearly there are other ways to handle “real situations” and ATL Housewives chose the more entertaining route, therefore embodying the “mind and being” of “ghetto”. I really don’t see the discrepancy here.
Here are excerpts of her Essence interview:
ESSENCE.COM: The ATL “Housewives” show will be returning for a second season and is the highest rated of the “Housewives” franchise. It seems that the other shows are following the Georgia Peach lead for great ratings.
HARTWELL: Absolutely, they do. There’s always a double standard. Perhaps, we are held to a higher standard of excellence but real situations happen. It’s just unfair that people pass judgment and call our show ghetto but when they talk about the women Orange County or New York or New Jersey shows they call it entertainment. I believe that the way that we’ve been raised as Black people—always keeping secrets in our family and really witnessing Black women go through it—that we are judged harshly. For instance, there’s a teaser for the New Jersey show where one of the women flips over a table in the restaurant. Now had any of us done that we probably would have lost some viewers and been told that we lack class. Unfortunately, certain behaviors are more accepted from our counterparts than they are among us. So tell me is their show ghetto or simply entertainment? People need to understand that ghetto isn’t a color, it’s a state of mind and being.
There very well may be a double standard. But clearly there are other ways to handle “real situations” and ATL Housewives chose the more entertaining route, therefore embodying the “mind and being” of “ghetto”. I really don’t see the discrepancy here.
No comments:
Post a Comment