Some Atlanta Residents Livid Over “Real Housewives of Atlanta” as a Gross Misrepresentation
by Dr. Boyce Watkins
It appears that there are residents of Atlanta who are not happy about new realities shows focused on the city of Atlanta, considering them to be embarrassing and inaccurate reflections of the city they know and love. Kelly Smith Beaty, writing for the Huffington Post, says that these shows do not present the real city of Atlanta and portray it for what it is: A place with good people, with good values and incredibly high achievements.
Says Smith Beaty:
Time after time, executive producers from L.A. and New York, where I currently reside- bring their camera crews and A/V techs into our city to create what inevitably amounts to the Jerry Springer equivalent of the franchise’s northern counterparts. A series that historically featured the diamond encrusted lives of wealthy spouses debuted an Atlanta version of the series where the wealth was elusive and spouses were no longer a requirement. More recently, a show about popular entertainers and the women who love them premiered an Atlanta-based installment where the term popular was subjective and women suggested that other women should be put “on the track,” a prostitution reference that is particularly damaging for a city that is already noted for being one of the largest hubs for child s*x trafficking in the world. To put it mildly I was offended. To state I plainly, I was aghast.
Expressing her concerns about these shows, Smith-Beaty continues on, speaking of Atlanta residents of the past who’ve achieved things that the city can be proud of, like Alonzo and Adrienne Herndon, a couple who founded the Atlanta Insurance Company. Smith-Beaty says that oftentimes, the search for the glamorous can cause Hollywood to focus on the dysfunctional in order to get ratings. It appears that she is speaking of the shows “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” as well as “Tiny and Toya,” the BET show featuring the baby mamas of rappers Lil Wayne and TI.
My point is only that the city that has had an uninterrupted succession of black mayors since 1974, beginning with the first black mayor of a major southern city, Maynard Jackson, to present mayor Kasim Reed, and the city that birthed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and gave rise to the likes of W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, baseball great Hank Aaron and modern day mogul Tyler Perry doesn’t have to settle for being the b**t of any reality franchise’s humiliating and reputation-damaging joke.
What I love about Smith-Beaty’s article is that she is standing up in a way that we all should. The term “rep your city,” isn’t just reserved for rappers who want to tell you about “trapping in the cut,” “rolling on twenty foes,” and all the great places to go if you want to get shot. ”Repping” also means speaking proudly and boldly of the achievements of your hometown, taking pride in those who’ve worked hard to be educated, and relishing the strong traditions being established that will empower our kids for many generations to come. Atlanta produces the amazing women of Spelman and Clark, the extraordinary men of Morehouse, and an entire community of Americans who are shaping their realities into powerful manifestations of greatness. This should not be watered down by a bunch of Hollywood bigots who want to reduce our highest achievers into profitable minstrel shows.
Perhaps we should all start repping our community and not letting VH-1 control the dialogue.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To receive Dr. Boyce commentary in your email, please click here.
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These shows aren’t simply a misrepresentation of the city of Atlanta, but of the African American culture as a whole
I personally think that th show should be called something else, because housewives means, taking care of children, maintaining the house, the working husband and yourself. Not vain women who just wants to shop and stay in fromt of the camera, where do real family values come in at?
Ooops!!! “on the typing” the show and where does
Well said. Honestly, I was starting to think Atlanta was the HQ for crazy black folks!!!
I expect no more from a city that has a radio station,1380 WAOK am ,that has a elitist black talk show host Lorraine Jaques White,that constantly ask the self hating question”is it in black people’s DNA to steal and rob?”Mean while these same people she insults give her husband ,Dr RL White,their hard earned money every Sunday in offerings.Their church is not in any well to do black area,but in “the hood”.She often put these same church members’ problems that they come to her for spiritual counseling,out on the radio to validate her disdain for them.Only in Atlanta could she get away with such.
Gold diggers, whores, ex-strippers, worthless low quality black women.
It’s very easy. To fix the problem, stop watching everything they put in front of you. Why do people watch these shows? For the drama, fights and all negative things in it. Nothing to be learned from these shows so lets move on.
In this country, if you wanna do damage you gotta attack the pocketbook. the show is sponsored by advertisers. Let them know you won’t buy the products; they’ll pull the ads and the show has no revenue. It’s that simple. the producers don’t care about your discomfort. To them it’s free press. Anything controversial means people are watching; which means adverisers want in!
The truth: The real, decent, blue-collar and white-collar peole of ATL don’t even know or associate with these Gold diggers, whores, ex-strippers, worthless low quality black women.
all they do is talk about stuff…material stuff..when blacks get a show then show should be telling blacks how the system work and how to work it…investments investments investment…just like the banks…..people are really picking the food up off the ground, people are really growing chickens killing chickens and putting them in the stores…for real….people are really raising hogs killing them and putting them in stores for real….blacks got to stop the niger bullshyt and get into the realworld of work…and i would put the other g on it if it wasn’t for censor….the time have come get the use the land we got to raise chickens and hogs….to grow all kinds of stuff you name it corn…wheat…potato’s…soy….stop this niger thinking every basketball, football player get a dollar over a million go buy a million dollars house…he play three years and he out…now he can’t affrord the taxes on the house let alone the house payment….why do black feel they have to do this….just take your face off your money and keep it simple….keep your face off your money and stop the news system from telling people that you make this money it can be a threat you these brothers
I do not watch the show. It degrades black women. I refused to watch any of their shows. I watched one. I will never watch another one! I like the power and beautiful of Black women. I wish that the show had that kind of powerfullness as opposes to being quote ‘Ghetto.’ I do apologize to women who felt offended by my words!
I have watched the show once in the past but it has no substance at all. I really wondered if they realize how ridiculous they are and why they have no pride as Black Women.
I see white women doing it because they will do just about anything, especially when it comes to trapping our silly, ignorant,
black athletes. Most of them are so pitiful. They just have to have a white woman and they don’t even realize that in these women’s worlds, they are trained to go after them. They only want what they can get. The first thing they will do is get pregnant and then they are set for life.
Our Black women used to have more moral integrity back in the day but now, I don’t know what to think. Some of them are just as low down as their white counterparts.
Let us continue to pray for our Black men and Women that they eventually return to the real world.
Most of them are so pitiful