Bravo's Reckoning With Racism

Art by Natasha Arnowitz

Bravo made headlines this summer after firing four Vanderpump Rules cast members. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills spinoff follows the lives of young socialites working in restaurants owned by former housewife Lisa Vanderpump. In the first season, Stassi Schroeder and Kristin Doute were introduced as stars of the show, where they remained until a story of their racist behavior surfaced this June.

In 2018, the two called the police on Faith Stowers, their former and only Black cast member, claiming she was a woman accused of a crime they saw in a Daily Mail article. They also made the false accusation on Twitter and on a podcast. Their casualness about the situation ignores that given the history of police brutality against Black Americans, their actions could very well have caused a dangerous or fatal interaction between Stowers and the police.

Recent national protests sparked by the unjust murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and Rayshard Brooks have caused change in a way the country has not seen since the civil rights movement. In light of this transformational moment, Bravo fired Schroeder and Doute after Stowers spoke publicly about the false accusation. Fellow cast members Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni were also fired for past racist tweets, along with Peter Hunziker of Below Deck: Mediterranean. 

This came as a surprise—not because the firings were not justified, but because Bravo does not have a history of being committed to diversity and anti-racism within the casting and production of their own shows.

The installations of the Real Housewives franchise are segregated. White women are cast in versions taking place in Orange County, Beverly Hills, New York, Dallas, and New Jersey. There have only ever been two non-White women cast on any of those installments. Black women, on the other hand, are cast in the Real Housewives of Potomac or Atlanta.

Though Atlanta and Potomac make up 25 percent of the franchise, they have been wildly popular. Atlanta is consistently one of the highest rated franchises, and Potomac is currently having a surge in popularity as many took to binging the show during quarantine. 

Potomac star Gizelle Bryant spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the show’s recent uptick in popularity. Her response was “‘Yeah, where have you been?’ because we've been here, and we've been great, I feel, since day one.” Bryant points to how the show’s original cast members have on-screen chemistry that makes the show more enjoyable.

With the exception of the Persian American cast of Shahs of Sunset, the all-Black casts of Married to Medicine, and the Latinx cast of Texicanas, a similar lack of diversity exists in the nearly all-White casts of Below Deck, Summer House, Southern Charm and, yes, Vanderpump Rules.

The whitewashing and racism within these shows will not change overnight, but the network’s recent actions show that reality TV networks can no longer ignore their responsibility in anti-racist work. On August 9, Bravo aired a discussion with 12 cast members called “Race in America: A Movement Not a Moment.” 

The discussion touched on the Black Lives Matter movement, systematic racism, inequality, interpersonal racism, and allyship; it did not, however, cover the network’s issues with racism. Bravo could have set aside time for the Black women and men present to talk about their own experiences with racism during their time on Bravo. 

The absence of discussion about the fired individuals indicates Bravo may not be dedicated to ensuring an equitable experience for their Black cast members if it means the network has to address their own complicity. In June, Real Housewives of Atlanta star Nene Leakes expressed her frustration with executive producer Andy Cohen and other Bravo executives on Twitter, including a retweet calling for Cohen to be fired. Since then, Leakes announced she is leaving RHOA.  

Cohen and other executives can do much more to ensure a better, more inclusive environment. Firing racist individuals is important, but without purposeful change in the network, their response is nothing more than performative action to save face. The unfortunate reality is that networks like Bravo have long had the ability to ensure their shows were representative of the diversity in this country, but they have chosen not to. 

Time will tell if Bravo and other networks producing reality TV will let these important conversations fade out or make them central to the production of their shows because, as Bravo said: this is a movement, not a moment.