Eboni K. Williams opens up about RHONY and her ‘curriculum for white folks’ on Acting Up
'The Real Housewife of New York' sat down with theGrio's Cortney Wills on the latest episode of 'Acting Up'
Eboni K. Williams knows about television and RHONY is all the better for it.
The newest Real Housewife of New York star is having a knockout season on the hit reality series as their first Black cast member. In a recent episode of Acting Up, Williams opened up to theGrio‘s Cortney Wills about her journey with RHONY, repping Black women on the Bravo hit series and her “white people’s curriculum” on her Instagram page.
Speaking to how she’s subject to “curveballs” in the form of macro and microaggressions, Williams shares in the episode, “The curveballs really tend to come in the form of macro or microaggressions, right? And that’s what I mean when I say when you watch, like episodes five and six over and over again and spoiler alert: this isn’t even close to the last time as audience members, you will see these insanely difficult conversations. There are a handful more of them throughout the season.”
She goes on to compare it to being in a Marvel movie as she tries to handle the “intense level and repetition of the aggressions.”
She has other women of color in the Bravo world she can lean on to she shares in the episode. In a recent push for diversity, Bravo has begun to integrate not just RHONY but almost all of their respective casts. Garcelle Beauvais joined the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills last year as their first Black cast member, and Crystal Kung Minkoff joined this year as their first Asian American housewife. Dr. Tiffany Moon recently joined Dallas as their first Asian American cast member as well. They’ve created what Williams describes as, “a sorority within a sorority,” together.
Williams explains, “I want to say that my castmates are very different than Garcelle’s castmates…and Garcelle and I talk a lot. I talk Crystal Kung Minkoff and I talk to Tiffany Moon on Dallas….we’ve kind of created a little bit of a sorority within a sorority as housewives because we’re all doing different but very similar work by way of integrating these historically white series and franchises. So, you know, my strategy is rooted in the fact that I’ve also been a fan of RHONY, right? I’ve watched these women for 13 years and I know a bit about two things: I know about television and I know about navigating spaces that are hostile to my existence.”
She describes herself as classically trained in “oral advocacy and oral argument” and even dived into that while she doesn’t feel she has to educate white people, she has developed a “curriculum for white folks.” On her Instagram page, she has shared a white people’s “homework assignment.”
She explains, “You will see I created a white people’s homework assignment. It is a curriculum. Yes, I went I took the time to say I have a Bachelor’s in Black studies. I know my own lived experience as a black woman. I know this sh-t inside out and learn it more every day. I just got back from Tulsa where I learned even more.”
Williams continues to describe how she even broke it down into two levels, basic and intermediate, and that the list is free and dives deeper than the top Netflix documentaries on race. Moving past basic ignorance through information and education, she believes, leads to an “honest truth and reconciliation as a nation,” which seems parallel to her current journey on RHONY.
Check out the full conversation on Acting Up.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s podcast “Dear Culture”? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku. Download theGrio today!
