{"id":250810,"date":"2021-05-15T15:08:27","date_gmt":"2021-05-15T12:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/real-housewives-needs-to-tackle-antisemitism-not-just-racism\/"},"modified":"2021-05-15T15:08:27","modified_gmt":"2021-05-15T12:08:27","slug":"real-housewives-needs-to-tackle-antisemitism-not-just-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/real-housewives-needs-to-tackle-antisemitism-not-just-racism\/","title":{"rendered":"#\u2018Real Housewives\u2019 needs to tackle antisemitism, not just racism"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#\u2018Real Housewives\u2019 needs to tackle antisemitism, not just racism<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been a fan of Bravo\u2019s \u201cReal Housewives\u201d from the start, especially the New York and New Jersey franchises. Small towns in their own ways, I\u2019ve become good friends with a few of the housewives in real life over the years, too. In fact, if you squint hard enough, you may spot me in early episodes, chatting nonchalantly with other Friends-of-Housewives in the background as the cameras rolled.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m currently catching up on the 13th season of the \u201cReal Housewives of New York\u201d and proud to see that Bravo\u2019s hometown franchise has welcomed its first black cast member, Eboni K. Williams<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Adding the first black \u201cRHONY\u201d cast member isn\u2019t the only way Bravo is reportedly reckoning with race issues and ethnic diversity both on screen and behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople haven\u2019t talked about race and ethnicity to the extent that they\u2019ve talked about it this season,\u201d Bravo\u2019s executive vice president of current programming, Shari Levine, told Vulture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is this more prevalent than on \u201cThe Real Housewives of Atlanta,\u201d which just aired the final \u201cReunion\u201d episode of its own 13th season. The show followed its all-black cast, including fan-favorite Porsha Williams, her Black Lives Matter activism and her own arrest calling for the arrest of the officers responsible for the shooting of Breonna Taylor. Williams\u2019 activism didn\u2019t go unnoticed by Bravo execs. Page Six revealed<\/a> this week that Bravo greenlighted a three-part series<\/a> for her, spotlighting her activism and family life.<\/p>\n

Bravo to Bravo for its reckonings on race. But the network has yet to reckon with a different kind of app<\/a>arent bias from some of cast members: tacit antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\"Student
Student Minister Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad (pictured left, with Minister Louis Farrakhan) attended a Baby Blessing Dinner for Porsha Williams, and later posted a message praising Farrakhan\u2019s beliefs.<\/figcaption>
Facebook<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At Williams\u2019 Baby Blessing Dinner in September 2018 with then-partner Dennis Mckinley, Student Minister Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad<\/a>, the Southern Regional Representative of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan and The Nation of Islam, posed for a photo with the couple. He then posted the picture with a post that read<\/a>: \u201cIt was a honor to share some words based on what the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan has taught us!!\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the same time, McKinley praised Williams along with a video on Instagram<\/a> of Farrakhan and the message: \u201cLet the dynasty begin\u2026.together we buil\ufe0fd\u2026 The home is not a woman\u2019s place, it\u2019s her base. Her place is wherever her gift will take her if she is free to be who she really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last July, the Anti-Defamation League referred to Farrakhan as \u201cthe most popular antisemite in America<\/a>.\u201d In 2019, Facebook and Twitter suspended his accounts, citing his hateful rhetoric as a reason.<\/p>\n

Sharrieff Muhammad denies Farrakhan is an antisemite, but does so while promoting<\/a> the Nation of Islam\u2019s three-volume \u201cThe Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews,\u201d which falsely asserts that Jews are responsible for the slave trade, that the Holocaust never happened, that Jews control the government, media and the economy, and many other conspiracies refuted by historians and condemned as purely antisemitic.<\/p>\n

Farrakhan himself has an odd way of defending his hatred of Jews \u2014 and his homophobia. At his Million Man March in 2015, Farrakhan falsely claimed \u201cJews in Hollywood\u201d had \u201csingle handedly made same sex marriage legal.\u201d Then, speaking of Jews, he added<\/a>: \u201cYou\u2019re God\u2019s chosen people?! You\u2019ve lost your covenant status! You are not the chosen of God, you are the chosen of Satan!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Phaedra
Phaedra Parks has called Minister Louis Farrakhan (pictured together) a \u201cgreat mentor\u201d and a \u201cgood friend.\u201d<\/figcaption>
Abdul Sharrieff Muhammad\/Facebook<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sadly, Porsha Williams and former \u201cRHOA\u201d cast member Phaedra Parks helped promote the Million Man March. In a September 2015 Facebook post, Sharrieff Muhammad thanked \u201cmy dear Sister Phaedra and Porsha of The Real Housewives of Atlanta\u201d for helping to \u201cpush\u201d the event.<\/p>\n

Parks, who is rumored to be rejoining the \u201cRHOA\u201d cast next season, has called Farrakhan a \u201cgreat mentor<\/a>\u201d and \u201cclose friend<\/a>.\u201d She has even boasted of filming scenes<\/a> with Farrakhan for \u201cRHOA\u201d which (thankfully) never aired.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not accusing Williams or Parks of being antisemites. I can\u2019t know what\u2019s in their heart. And Parks has done her part to wish<\/a> her \u201cJewish brothers and sisters\u201d an easy fast on Yom Kippur.<\/p>\n

But I also do not believe for a second that Andy Cohen, executive producer of the Real Housewives franchise and the face of Bravo \u2014 and the man who brought \u201cMazel\u201d into the vernacular \u2014 is unaware of the unease many viewers would feel knowing these cast members\u2019 close connections to Farrakhan and his ilk. Cohen himself is both Jewish and gay, two identities Farrakhan has deep contempt for.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, a 2015 photo of \u201cRHOA\u201d cast members at the Million Man March remains on the Bravo website<\/a>. Perhaps Bravo\u2019s 2021 \u201creckoning\u201d can continue by removing that picture ASAP. And if Williams is to focus on activism as her new three-part series suggests, perhaps she can begin by taking a closer look at the company she keeps.<\/p>\n

Melanie Notkin is the author of \u201cOtherhood: Modern Women Finding a New Kind of Happiness<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>\n <\/div>\n