VH1’s ‘Basketball Wives’ Cast Criticized For Colorism
During part one of the reunion for VH1’s hit show Basketball Wives, host Marc Lamont Hill brought up that cast member Ogom “OG” Chijindu feels that she’s treated differently on the controversial show because she has a darker complexion. There was a collective decision made that the only way the reunion would take place was if OG was on a different set than the rest of the cast.
“One of the things she said to me was everybody gets in arguments. Everybody threatens to whip somebody’s a– but she’s the only girl who’s been isolated and has been talked about this way. She said she thinks it’s because she’s dark-skinned and because she’s bigger,” Hill said to the cast who was present (OG wasn’t), Shaunie O’Neal, Evelyn Lozada, Jennifer Williams, Jackie Christie, Malaysia Pargo, Feby Torres, and Kristen Scott.
“First of all, there’s other brown-skin women on this stage,” O’Neal said. “There has been other brown-skin women on this show.”
“So why is she different? People have picked up things and thrown things?” Hill said. “What is different is that it’s almost every time we film. There’s a scene that you guys haven’t even seen before when she’s trying to fight Feby [Torres],” O’Neal replied.
“I got almost pushed through a wall from trying to stop OG from fighting Feby and she pushed me out of the way,” O’Neal continued while laughing.
Hill then asked everyone, “Raise your hand if you think OG is more dangerous or more aggressive than everybody else?” Scott, Lozada, and Torres, along with a few audience members raised their hands.
Prior to the reunion starting, when Hill informed OG about the other cast members’ wishes, she asked him if they were scared of her because she embraced her melanin.
Fans of the show took to Twitter and asserted that the show often does display colorism. Check out some of the tweets below.
A colorism convo between Shaunie and MLH? #Basketballwives pic.twitter.com/lE7vge3c1G
— books and beautiful gowns, phd. (@AmbreLynae) October 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/Maroonsista/status/1182099564913942529
#BBWLAReunion Basketball wives franchise is truly disgusting. It left 'fun' reality show when it entered real issues that plague the blk community & started perpetuating racism/colorism unapologetically. Evelyn is sitting there in blackface ol Rachel Dolezal heifer. pic.twitter.com/vG8niM0QKz
— queenie (@promqueen005) October 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/Poetic_96/status/1182099220792332288
I really disappointed in basketball wives like the blatant colorism this season is just so pic.twitter.com/DLEzFzKKPH
— Ari✨ (@hoochiemonsta) October 10, 2019
https://twitter.com/ForeverTej/status/1182098705756893192
Shaunie trying to act like she doesn't see how colorism played a part on the show...Girl bye smh.. And Shaunie humble yourself. You have what you have because of ur last name and husband #RealityTV #VH1 #BasketballWivesLA #BasketballWives #BBWLA #BBWReunion pic.twitter.com/6khDaDmZxU
— Lovely⁹0🤎 (@GodBlessedme84) October 10, 2019
Madame Noire‘s Victoria Uwumarogie also wrote an op-ed stating that “there are other dark and brown-skinned black women on Basketball Wives, but that doesn’t mean OG still didn’t experience colorism.”
Back in September, OG took to Twitter and wrote, “and there it is. Show your true colors you racist bigot. You called CeCe ‘ling ling,’ Jackie a ‘cockroach,’ and now me a monkey. May God take care of you well well…Evelyn Lozada @VH1 not ok.”
Lozada claimed that OG’s social media post cost her several endorsement deals and she filed to obtain a restraining order against her. However, it was denied.
On Wednesday (Oct. 8), TMZ reported that a judge denied the restraining order that Lozada filed for against OG. The judge stated that the matter would be appropriately handled via the lawsuit that Lozada had already filed.
