Not so fast, Grand Dame! Dr. Wendy Osefo put on her professor hat during the #RHOPReunion and (correctly) taught the cast why they weren’t “equipped” to discuss colorism. Her comments came after Karen Huger said that there’s no “better group of Black women on Bravo” to have the conversation.
Source: Clifton Prescod / Bravo
On Sunday, viewers watched part two of the reunion which included a continuation of Robyn Dixon and Candiace Dillard Bassett discussing their fallout. During the conversation, the two rehashed what led to them ending their friendship and according to Robyn, it started at the season 7 reunion.
Source: Clifton Prescod / Bravo
As previously reported, in 2022 Candiace blasted Robyn’s bestie Gizelle Bryant, and said she benefits from white privilege with her “white looking a**.” She also tweeted about people being more offended by a “read from a dark-skinned woman” rather than by a “white adjacent woman.”
Candiace was unaware that Robyn was offended by her comment and recalled later complimenting Robyn’s “long hair” in a DM, to which Robyn replied;
“Probably makes me look even more like a “white adjacent looking woman”, so can’t imagine that’s a good thing.”
Candiace said she later DMed Robyn again and was ignored, and on Sunday, Robyn revealed why.
“I did not respond to your message because the colorism conversation is so uncomfortable for me,” said Robyn who said she was “extremely hurt” by colorism accusations. “It was an extremely uncomfortable thing to be accused of. I’ve never experienced that in my life, never.”
“For me talking about any aspect of race is not uncomfortable for me,” said Candiace who also clarified during the season 7 reunion that doesn’t think her cast mates are colorists. “I mistakenly thought that you all thought that way as well.”
After some more chatter and a brief comment from Gizelle Bryant about why she couldn’t possibly be a colorist, Dr. Wendy Osefo jumped in with some schooling.
“If we step back for a second and if this was a black-or-white conversation, it’s almost equivalent to someone saying ‘Man, I’m so hurt that you called me a racist’, but when is the conversation ever going to shift to–‘Why did you think or believe that to be true for me to be a racist?’” said the Johsn Hopkins Professor. “If you’re not gonna talk about why they believe this phenomenon exists, then let’s not talk about the phenomenon itself.”
To that, Karen offered a different take but was quickly shut down respectfully.
“There’s no better group of Black women on the Bravo network to talk about that than us,” said Karen.
“No, actually that’s very incorrect,” retorted Wendy. “If you want to talk about colorism then you need to have the range to talk about colorism, and a lot of people do not have the range and I’ll stop it there.”
Viewers have since weighed in and applauded Wendy for being the voice of reason.
What do YOU think about Dr. Wendy Osefo’s comments during the #RHOPReunion?