By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Wednesday, July 15, 2015
There's a certain swath of pop culture viewers who hate Bravo for shows such as "Real Housewives of Atlanta" and "Married to Medicine" because they contend these shows portray black women in a stereotypical ratchet light.
Supporters argue that the shows represent successful black women in a mostly positive way, that the drama is there to simply keep eyeballs on the programs. And they believe these shows are no worse than those of "Real Housewives of Orange County" or "New York" or "New Jersey" or "Beverly Hills," which happen to have all-white casts.
This is the underlying tension after Andy Cohen, the creator of all the "Real Housewives" franchises, called an online feud between black teen actress Amandla Stenberg and Kylie Jenner the "jackhole of the day." Stenberg criticized Jenner's use of cornrows as cultural appropriation. Many found the phrase "jackhole" targeting a 16-year-old black teen offensive but it's what Cohen does daily on "Watch What Happens Live" targeting whatever annoys him most that day.
He wasn't targeting Stenberg individually but such nuances are easily lost in the world of instant judgment on social media.
"Today's Jackhole goes to the Instagram feud between Kylie Jenner and Hunger Games star/Jaden Smith's prom date Amandla Stenberg, who criticized Kylie for her cornrows, calling it cultural appropriation. White girls in cornrows … is it OK or nay, Laverne and Andre?"
Laverne Cox and Andre Leon Talley were two black guests, neither of whom thought the cornrows were a big deal.
But Cohen got raked over the coals in Twitter land by some very sensitive souls who used the hashtag #boycottbravo. Here's a sampling:
Cohen apologized on Twitter:
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