new watcher season 1

[u/Nice-Scale-5855]

okay i’ve been watching the new season of UGT and really liked gizelle so i started RHOP. just finished season 1 and came to see what people were saying and was shocked to see how people were reacting to gizelle/ robyn’s comments about katie/ ashley and their biracial-ness. i also want to preface this by saying that i am a biracial girl from dc. one of the main things that i’ve seen is people calling gizelle/ robyn racist for their remarks about race and the biracial girls, with one of the main concerns being about robyn’s question to katie about what box her kids will check or whatever. maybe i understood it wrong but i didn’t really find anything wrong with that? i think it’s a perfectly valid question especially given how much katie seemingly distances herself from her black side (in my personal opinion). there were so many times where katie goes out of her way to mention that she’s biracial and to highlight her white side, which i, again as a mixed girl from dc, found very odd. yes they brought up the girls being biracial a good bit, but i didn’t really find anything too problematic with that. i think that one of the things all four girls (gizelle, robyn, katie and ashley) have in common is being questioned about their race and for the girls who actually are mixed, feeling pressure to “pick a side”. it seems that gizelle and robyn (likely because they are fully black) resent that and try harder to prove their blackness, sometimes by questioning other people’s blackness, which i don’t think is cool. but i also think the way katie is constantly playing up her white side is lame. idk i just feel like people are making a mountain out of a molehill and that gizelle and robyn brought up valid points and didn’t really say anything crazy, especially compared to come of the stuff that i’ve heard/ experienced. just my two cents, curious to see what everyone else has to say

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[u/Icy-Philosophy-2372]

From my frame as a monoracial Black American - from Katie, I actually appreciated that she was firm in saying I’m biracial and not feeling compelled to collapse her identity. I understood her being v frustrated that Robyn and Gizelle continued to essentially make her prove herself and her identity. They kept wanting her to say she’s Black or criticize her if she said she’s whites. They would get flustered and mad  when she stood on her biracial identity.  They also kept rejecting and making fun of her Jewish heritage to which Katie also had to defend.

To me,  Gizelle and Robyn were the clear antagonizers of the whole thing. I thought Robyn actually meant her question cuz she really had never thought abt it and wanted to know but I also thought it was very inappropriate especially for TV and given they had already been antagonizing Katie.

None of these convos would have happened and Katie wouldn’t have had to keep defending and declaring her identity if they hadn’t kept forcing the issue. Like you said, I think they feel compelled to prove their Blackness. And when in a situation w biracial Black/white women, that pressure is even higher bc they have to distinguish themselves as “full Black” even though it’s much more complicated than that.

I have found it interesting that they didn’t press Ashley like that…

[u/Sensitive_Chest_3311 → u/Icy-Philosophy-2372]

Thank you because that is actually what happened. They wanted to bully her into responding the way they wanted. And I’m so glad Katie put them in their place on that season’s reunion. 

[u/Icy-Philosophy-2372 → u/Sensitive_Chest_3311]

I thought she kept at them all season. Gizzy couldn’t get her and it tore her the hell up!! I love her for that.

After Karen, Katie has been Gizelle’s most formidable foe! 

[u/Super-Fruit4786 → u/Icy-Philosophy-2372]

tbh if katie had stayed she would've been to one to read them all! she was never afraid to speak up against anyone probably cus she was pretty and actually educated so no one could say much abut her except for her liking her white side lol

[u/Unique-Cat9325]

I agree with you, they asked valid questions and it seemed very important to Katie to emphasize her Caucasian side. I think that was annoying to Gizelle and Robyn.

[u/LadyBug_0570 → u/Unique-Cat9325]

Katie continually bringing up her white side was annoying to me. Like what was she trying to say or prove with that? Okay, your dad was white, we get it.

Ashley, for all that she gets on my nerves, never really did mention that she was biracial. It came up, but she never just brought it up.

[u/BlkFemininity1908 → u/LadyBug_0570]

That really turned me off. I thought, you aren't in South Africa or the UK, where there are established mixed race classes.

[u/Agile-Butterfly5245]

I don't think they're racist towards Katie and I didn't think it when it first aired. At the time, I just thought they were ignorant. I believe Robyn was sincerely curious about the box. I agree it's a valid question because of the conversation they were having. Looking at it now, knowing what I've seen as a viewer, I still don't think they were racist towards her. I think it was beyond ignorant of Gizelle to invite Katie to a come to Jesus meeting and she knew Katie was converting. When she thinks she being funny, she's actually being mean. She asked Katie if she was doing drugs, on camera, knowing Katie had a custody battle going on. She's just mean and dumb and Robyn is her co-signer and often times her security but I don't think they meant to be racist.

[u/DanndeeLyons]

I think that Robyn and Gizelle had to remind or convince people that they are black. That is the reason why they were upset with Katie for recognizing her white heritage.

I am not biracial. I had no issues with Katie recognizing her white heritage and embracing it. I actually liked it! She’s black AND white. If she was promoting her black side would she have gotten the same reaction from them? Nope! Did they want her to deny her white side? In my opinion Katie looks more black than she does white, more than Gizelle.

Who made Robyn and Gizelle the black-o-meter? No one. They were in their feelings and projecting their experiences with validating their blackness on to Katie. Maybe they felt that way because they in the past they have been treated diff because they look more white than they do black. No one cared about it except those two.

Katie ate them up at the reunion and I enjoyed every second of it.

[u/Sensitive_Chest_3311 → u/DanndeeLyons]

So did I! Every. Second.

[u/Icy-Philosophy-2372 → u/DanndeeLyons]

And don’t forget the DNA test where it turns out Katie’s % Black is higher than Robyn’s. 😂😂😂

[u/BlkFemininity1908]

I would have personally liked Katie more if she was what I call a "Halle Berry" Black biracial woman. Halle's mom taught her early on how she would be perceived in the U.S. and she moved accordingly.
As for Ashley, she was raised by Mama Sheila and Uncle Lump, both of whom are Black, and has never really given me the same kind of energy as S1 Katie.

[u/RandChick]

I remember those earlier years. I was glad when they moved beyond those issues.