Housewives: Reality shows clash with real racism; Asian American women have not fared well

Jennie Nguyen was fired from the reality show.

 

The popular "Housewives" television franchise has its problems when casting Asian American women in their Bravo-produced reality series.

Jennie Nguyen was fired Tuesday from “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” following backlash from a series of past controversial social media posts that sher posted years ago. and recently resurfaced.

Backlash began after fans discovered numerous posts on Nguyen’s Facebook page that appeared to mock the Black Lives Matter movement and protests.

Nguyen, 44, posted and reposted memes and photos that included phrases like “BLM Thugs” and “Violent Gangs.”

One post, allegedly shared by the 44-year-old “Housewife” in September 2020, reads, “I’m sick of people saying cops need more training. You had 18 years to teach your kids it’s wrong to loot, steal, set buildings a blaze, block traffic, laser people’s eyes, overturn cars, destroy buildings and attack citizens. Who failed who?”

Tuesday, Jan. 25, Bravo released a statement: “We recognize we failed to take appropriate action once her offensive social media posts were brought to our attention. Moving forward, we will work to improve our processes to ensure we make better informed and more thoughtful casting decisions.”

The next day, Nguyen appeared on Instagram Live to give her side of the story. She  said:

"I just want you to understand my point of view and where I come from, and what's going on during that time. I mean it's an old post on my account, it's in 2020. I just want you to understand, during that time I had a team of people that were helping me. Whether they post it, I post it, it doesn't really matter at this point. For me, it's on my account, and I take full responsibility and accountability for what was posted.

"I know I hurt a lot of people. I know my viewpoint during that time in 2020 was emotional. And it brings back a lot of memories during that time when we went through such a tragic, terrible year. And I just want to let you know that I am taking full responsibility and accountability for the things that were posted on my account, whether it was me or somebody else. It's on my account and I'm big enough to understand that those posts are very sensitive and inappropriate, to the point where it is disgusting," Nguyen continued.

"But I want you to understand that my political stance, I still support that. I am very proud to be a Republican. I am proud to be able to say I have the freedom of speech to choose and to have an opinion. I respect your opinion, I respect your political stance. We are different," she added. "But we need to respect each other and we need to understand that we live in this country, where we have the freedom to speak our mind, as well as we have a freedom to choose."

"I don't tolerate violence. But I do support my law enforcement. I know with every profession, there's good and there's bad. I don't support the bad, I don't support the brutality of Black people or with any race. But I do support my law enforcement. But that doesn't make me racist. To support my political stance, that does not make me a racist. And I want you to understand that. And whether I remember the posts in 2020, I don't remember whether it's on my account or not. We don't remember what we ate yesterday, let alone two years ago. But like, again, I take full responsibility," she said.

Dr. Tiffany Moon 

While Nguyen is being accused of being racist, another Asian American "Housewife" was the victim of. racist remarks from her castmates.

Dr. Tiffany Moon, mother of two and an anesthesiologist,  joined "Real Housewives of Dallas," in its fifth season but was not met with open arms by the rest of cast. The racial clash leaves the future of the show uncertain.

Brandi Redmond, whose 2017 Instagram story in which she affected an Asian accent had gone viral in the months before production of the fifth season. Redmond told Moon she wasn't comfortable when Moon was present.

In the reunion show last May, all the apparently repressed racism poured forth. Moon’s castmates made racist comments about Asian food, and prominent Dallas socialite Kameron Westcott accused Moon of being racist toward Asians on her TikTok.

That prompted relatives of Westcott to join the Moon-bashing on Twitter where they made fun of Moon being "woke" and called her anti-racist sentiments another form of racism. In another tweet they described Moon being drunk in one instance.

After the reunion fiasco, a lawyer for Moon gave a statement to Variety on the Westcott's tweets, calling their comments “reckless, defamatory and appalling.” “These attacks on (Moon's) character will not be tolerated,” said attorney Andrew Brettler. “The Westcotts would be well advised to keep mentions of Dr. Moon out of their social media feeds.”

The Westcott's later deleted the offending social media remarks.

Bravo also replied with its own statement supporting Moon. Without naming the Westcotts, specifically, the network posted on social media: “Anti-racism is, in fact, not a form of racism and the network stands by Dr. Tiffany Moon and her advocacy against racism and violence.”

"There are many reasons I would love to be on again if offered the opportunity," Moon told E! exclusively. "But there are also a lot of reasons that I hesitate to have a resounding, ‘Yes, I would love too!' accept that invitation. I have a lot of reservations because there was a lot of emotional expenditure that came because of the show, both good and bad things that came out of it. And also it took a lot of time away from my job and my family and I don't know if I have the capacity to do it again."

Bravo, for its part, emphasized that the show has not been officially canceled but was just on hiatus.