Eboni K. Williams Talks Her #RHONY Debut

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Eboni K. Williams DAZZLED Bravo fans Wednesday when she made her Real Housewives of New York debut but some caustic Karens (of course) found fault with Bravo’s newest Black queen.

The Real Housewives of New York City - Season 13

Source: Bravo / Getty

As previously reported Eboni is #RHONY’s FIRST black housewife and she’s bringing her intelligence, legal knowledge, wit, and beauty to the franchise. She’s also bringing unapologetic Blackness and she did so in her very housewives meetup alongside fellow housewife Leah McSweeney. While having a chat with Leah in Central Park, Eboni wore a Black Lives Matter mask and a statement-making sweatshirt acknowledging the “Central Park Five” a.k.a. the “Exonerated Five” who were falsely accused of assaulting a woman in that very Manhattan park.

Later, in another scene, while the ladies were planning a trip to the Hamptons, Eboni opened up about her “spiritual connection” to Sag Harbor, the first community in Long Island that allowed Black people to own waterfront property. Several of Eboni’s fellow housewives admitted that they didn’t know that piece of the village’s history but they at least seemed receptive to the info.

By contrast, however, some Bravo watchers were perturbed.

According to Eboni who was a recent guest on BOSSIP’s #RealityRecap, her Sag Harbor comments and sweatshirt triggered some whiney watchers and they went full Karen with their shade.

“There have been some Karens and they’re big mad,” said Eboni to Deputy Editor @IamDaniCanada during BOSSIP’s #RealityRecap. “They’re mad at everything, they were mad before I opened my mouth. They were mad at the Exonerated Five sweatshirt, they were mad at the conversation–me talking about my then-boyfriend reflecting on the kneeling during the NFL football season and how important that was to the social justice movement. Girl, they were mad about me informing the ladies of the history of Sag Harbor and homeownership in that space. They were just mad about a bunch of s***.”

She also noted that fellow housewife Sonja Morgan texted her with a supportive message after hearing about the Karens’ comments.

“Sonja copied and pasted a note that said ‘This is what this franchise needs,'” said Eboni on BOSSIP’s #RealityRecap. “It needs this push to grow in a space of knowledge and education of what’s important around Black and people of color in the city. Sonja said to me; ‘Thank you for facilitating that growth within our group’ and I just think that tells you what you need to know about Sonja.”

Source: Bravo / Getty

While shaking off the “Let Me Speak To The Manager” miscreants upset about her literally just speaking facts, the multihyphenate answered a fan question about whether or not she experienced any microaggressions while filming.

Eboni confirmed that she experienced both micro AND macro aggressions, but it was far from a shock and something she was well prepared for after years of work as a minority in often fully white rooms.

“I wasn’t at all surprised, I knew that stuff was coming,” said Eboni on BOSSIP’s #RealityRecap. “I feel like in many ways I was built for this because of my work at Fox News, my work in pageantry, my work as a lawyer in a big law firm, I’ve often been sadly in predominantly white spaces. I think it’s the responsibility of us who are privileged enough to ascend to those spaces, that we have work to do by way of educating these folks on how to treat us and our people so that those that come after us do not have to suffer the same experience.”

The Holding Court with Eboni K. Williams podcaster also shared during our #RealityRecap that despite detractors, her history lessons won’t be stopping anytime soon. She also revealed that her favorite housewife across all franchises is The Grand Dame Karen Huger (relatable!) and dished out tips on “dating rich men” since housewife Leah noted that that’s kinda Eboni’s thing.

Eboni’s tag line for her freshman season of #RHONY is “I have to work twice as hard for half as much…but now I’m coming for everything” and we can clearly see why!

Eboni K. Williams is coming to collect so pony up them coins, Bravo!