Madness

The Tragedy of (Slaying) the Truth: Omarosa Manigault v Bethenny Frankel

You-cant-handle-the-truth

“You can’t handle the truth!!!”

It would appear that this was the case on the Bethenny Show, a program on TV that I wasn’t even aware existed until 2 days ago. I am familiar with Bethenny Frankel who is a product of one of The Real Housewives franchises. I never cared much for her persona because I can’t relate to her and she appears to be nasty for the sake of the stink. That’s just my opinion of this woman from what has been edited and redacted for television. Likewise, Omarosa has been cut to fit the same cloth and will forever live in America’s consciousness as  “that angry Black woman from that one show” (i.e. The Apprentice).

Go ahead and choose your sides.

I was on Facebook a few days ago and saw a clip of the pair on Bethenny’s show. My friend who posted it captioned the link “This is what happens when you put two strong-willed women in the same room together…lol!”

That statement is unfortunate because it lends to the idea that there is only space for a single individual in leadership where the female sex is concerned, and that unlike men, women cannot collaborate when there is more than one strong presence in a space in time. And this is what America drinks and lives every day.

Women are catty.

Women are each other’s worst enemies.

Women are always trying to destroy each other!

That problem is only compounded when race becomes a factor.

I’m not going to include the clip on M.O.M. because the segment that is floating around paints a false picture of what actually happened on the show. I will (knowingly) not allow my blog to be a place for what Chimamanda calls the beginning a  story with ‘secondly’ thrive; and that is precisely what the internet is doing to Omarosa this week: Not providing  the genesis (or even a glimpse ) of how this whole kerfuffle began in the first place.

As I said, I cannot relate to Bethenny for several reasons. Outside of the fact that she and I possess a vagina and require oxygen to breathe and I can’t force any sort of commonalty with the woman just for forcing sake. I can and do relate to Omarosa however, for very obvious reasons. When she said that as an African- American she has to be exceptional at everything she does in order to get ahead in this business (read ANY business), and that Bethenny had the luxury of being “mediocre” to get rewards, she wasn’t lying. Her words evoked a collective gasp from anyone watching, but her words were true. It’s what us folk call “Black Tax”: you have to work twice as hard to get half as much. And even if we all know it’s true, we wouldn’t dare speak it out loud (most of us) and certainly not in a room full of White women! That being said, I HAD to wonder what led or forced Omarosa to say such a thing in that environment. You can call her crazy all you want to, but the woman has proven time and again that she isn’t stupid. This is where the “Second Story” begins.

If you watch the segment between the two in its entirety, you will note that Omarosa came onto the stage in good faith and was very pleasant from the beginning. During the course of their conversation, Bethenny threw several barbs at her, which Omarosa quickly addressed. She said she didn’t understand why she (Bethenny) would go onto The View and say such hurtful things about her, particularly that she (Bethenny) had a real career and Omarosa did not.

“I sincerely thought we were friends”, she commented almost wistfully.

“I wouldn’t say we were friends”, Bethany replied tartly. “And I never said you didn’t have a ‘real career’. In fact, if I said that I’ll give you $10,000!”

“And I’ll use the money to support my parishioners on Skid Row.”

Well of course after the producers checked the facts, those were Bethenny’s exact words. She quickly changed her tune and said that that was what she meant.

“You don’t have a brand, Omarosa,” she said condescendingly.

Omarosa replied that she TEACHES branding and marketing at Howard University, and oh, she’s also worked at the White House.

“What do you do, Bethenny? You bake cupcakes.”

With the gloves decidedly off, the two traded jabs and the show ended with Omarosa making the effort to extend the olive branch, saying the two had an opportunity to repair things.

“No we don’t, sweetie,” retorted Bethenny to wild applause.

With the audience clearly on her side, Bethenny declared at the end of the show that they “now know what Omarosa’s brand is.”

“It’s hate!” she said into the camera in that wild-eyed, glazed over stare I can’t stand.

I don't know any darkie by the name of "Kizzy"

I don’t know any darkie by the name of “Kizzy”

God, this all seemed so familiar. I’ve seen this before, again and again…. Like in every office I’ve ever worked in in the North Fulton area.  Oh, and on Roots.

The whole affair is very disturbing. I try not read what the Yahoo! trolls in the comments section have to say, but predictably they were on the socialite’s side, declaring that Omarosa was the reason racism was still alive and that she typifies the Angry Black Woman.

Yes. Shame on Omarosa for standing up for herself and repaying that emaciated wench in fistfuls of her own coin. She is the reason racism is still alive.

To quote the late Bernie Mac: A’murrica! Listen to me!

Black women of a certain pedigree don’t usually go around courting trouble. We have enough troubles in regular life to contend with. Omarosa did not go on Bethenny’s show to pick a fight or act a fool. But because she also doesn’t shuck and jive like Sheryl Underwood or isn’t as sweet and unintimidating as Gabriel Union, audiences don’t know how to receive her and women like Bethenny certainly aren’t ready for her. This is why this clip that only tells half the story (that I still will not share) is floating around. After all, how do you explain getting ‘owned’ and told off on your own show?  You can’t… so you do what women like Bethenny do best: play the victim.

If you think you’re big and bad enough to poke a hornets’ nest, you better be ready to get stung.