As impossible as it is to believe, promos for next week’s episode of Basketball Wives suggest a new low for the show as former NBA player Eric Williams throws a drink into his soon-to-be ex-wife Jennifer’s face.
At this point, we don’t know the context of the conversation and, truthfully, even after the show, thanks to editing, we still may never truly know but one thing is clear: Eric crossed the line.
Regardless of what the situation was, the aggressiveness at which he threw the drink is disturbing. Heck the fact that he threw the drink at all is disturbing. That’s why Twitter and the blogosphere lit up over the action. It even became radio conversation, especially on Sirius XM’s The Heat where a couple of personalities referenced it throughout the day.
Judging by the opinions posted, most people are startled by Eric’s action. Instead of turning away, however, people are programming their DVRs or penciling in the time on their calendar to not miss this episode. Sadly, such immaturity and blatant disrespect appears to be the norm and even worst, the standard, for Basketball Wives. The only thing that reigns supreme on that show is disrespect and viewers love it. As the chorus of Memphis rapper Yo Gotti’s 2009 song “Women Lie, Men Lie” reinforces “numbers don’t lie.” And surely there would not be a Basketball Wives LA premiering on August 29 if people weren’t regularly tuning into VH1.
WATCH THE FOOTAGE OF THE DRINK THROWING INCIDENT HERE
In this latest third cycle of the show, the drama has been high, primarily courtesy of Tami Roman, the ex-wife of former NBA player Kenny Anderson. Tami just seems to be itching for a fight. She’s been at odds with original cast members Jennifer Williams and Evelyn Lozada, and now Meeka Claxton, wife of ex-NBA player Speedy Claxton, is her latest target.
It’s so bad that, as shown on the July 25 episode, Tami and Meeka came to blows in Italy. Before the actual fight aired on July 25, however, TMZ had leaked the story in June and then, on July 22, just days before the show aired, it was widely reported that Meeka had filed a lawsuit against Tami. These reports guaranteed high ratings because, of course, people had to tune in to see for themselves. Not tuning in is simply not an option.
Demetria Lucas, who says she refuses to watch the show but can’t hide from it thanks to others who do, was so upset by Tami’s latest antics that she posted about it at Essence.com, “Real Talk: Tami Roman Needs a Reality Check.”
In it, she noted that “We are of a culture where getting somebody told and keeping it real are prized personality traits. But Tami, a real-life “Angela,” the fired up, neck rolling, loud-talking heroine of Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married?, has done nothing to be prized or celebrated. She is a classic case of when keeping it real goes wrong.”
To be truthful, the whole show is guilty of Dave Chappelle’s famous skit but it points to something being terribly amiss in our community. When a man assaults a woman, in any way, most of us are up in arms, as evidenced by the infamous Rihanna and Chris Brown incident and the reaction to the promo of Eric throwing water in Jennifer’s face. Yet, we constantly cheer on tension between women, especially black women.
Star Jones and NeNe Leakes clashing brought in huge ratings for The Celebrity Apprentice. In fact, NeNe has made a career off of discord on her first reality show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Perhaps Tami is just following her blueprint.
It’s like the beer commercials that show men enjoying women wrestling each other or the constantly reinforced stereotype of women fighting over men. We are just force-fed that not only is this how things are but it is how they are supposed to be. Only when the genders are mixed do we now raise an eyebrow.
Eric’s action has us on guard because we fear that such disrespect may indicate that over the course of their relationship, which spans at least a decade, Eric may have done far more than toss water in Jennifer’s face. Given his size, strength and self-described passion, his fists may have had a mind of their own.
To make matters even more intense, we’ve seen Jennifer agonize over divorcing Eric. For his part, he hasn’t come across too concerned. In fact, Eric’s bluntness is his undoing in the court of public opinion.
Tweeting isn’t helping him much in that area either. “Ahh. I c things r back normal on my page. Hoes Hating cause I through HOE-LY Water on a Woman who had a Demon n her. I tried 2 Cast it out!,” he tweeted in response to the reaction to the promo.
As much as it’s easy to blame just Eric Williams or Chris Brown for their actions, our community can’t be let off the hook. Because we cheer on Tami or NeNe in their altercations with other women, we are reinforcing that disrespecting women is okay. So we can’t turn around and be surprised when men do it.
If we want to put an end to this, we have to truly take a cue from Beyoncè and step up and lead and stop following.
