Last week, Bershan Shaw addressed her tension with “Real Housewives of New York” star Eboni K. Williams — and Eboni says that her presence on the show is making Black people uncomfortable.
“People did think that we would get along right away. And I gotta tell you, I thought that we would get along right away, you know, sister to sister,” Bershan said last week. “I think I can be a lot. I’m a big personality. I’m like, ‘Hey, girl!’ And different people handle you differently.”
“She’s reserved,” she continued. “So it didn’t take well because I think some things I said may have offended her. I didn’t mean to, I’m just thinking this is sister talk. I’m thinking, ‘Girl we’re having a good time,’ and it was like, ‘Oh, okay.'”
Eboni took the time to explain her take on their issues.
“I expected white uncomfortability. I did not expect the number of Black folks to be so uncomfortable by my presence on the show,” Eboni told “The Breakfast Club.”
She says that the majority of her messages are of from Black viewers who are upset with her bringing racial issues to the forefront.
She says viewers tell her: “They were nice enough to bring your Black a– on the show. Just be happy to be there,” and “You’ve ruined my good time. We don’t watch this show for anything but white people’s foolishness.”
That’s really how they feel. People want to harp on the Blackness of it all. Black people are feeling like I’m making them cringe. I’m making them uncomfortable. And I’m messing up their good, entertaining time,” she shared.
Despite the friction, Eboni did not use the internet to disparage Bershan.
“Listen, Bershan is her own strong, beautiful Black woman. She ain’t got to see it the way I see it, she don’t have to do it the way I do it. We see this dynamic differently,” Eboni shared. “Looking back at these episodes, I’m glad it happened that way. I’m glad that Bershan and I did not represent the kind of same experience and lens of black womanhood because that shows the truth of Black women, which is we are complicated. She wanted to lean into the similarities of herself and the women, and I wanted to start with the distinctions.”
