Credit: Instagram/EboniKWilliams, Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto
Eboni K. Williams opened up about the “race baiter” suggestion Heather Thomson made against her during an interview last week.
After seeing that her former Real Housewives of New York City co-star agreed with a fan who gave her the label and also accused her of planting a “fake narrative,” Eboni confirmed reports of a “tense” phone call and clapped back at those who’ve accused her of discussing race too much.
“Somebody sent me screenshots of Heather liking and agreeing with the race-baiter comment and then going on to say a paragraph [claiming I was] in some conspiracy alliance with [Leah McSweeney] to make Heather look bad. There was just so much untruth in that that I picked up the phone,” Eboni revealed to the Jasmine Brand on June 23.
Once Eboni got Heather on the phone, she learned that Heather, who quit production midway through season 13, was retaliating for things she said on Watch What Happens Live and RHONY.
“We had a tense, hour-long conversation… I said Heather actually did more harm than good in the way she was, to me, whitesplaining my feelings to these women… I found it problematic. We got through all of that explanation, we agreed to disagree about some of it, but… it was productive.”
Although some have suggested there have been too many discussions about race on RHONY, Eboni isn’t concerned with her critics and has remained focused on the cause, considering it her “life’s work.”
“As long as I hold the apple, I’m going to use the platform according to my discretion,” she explained. “And my discretion is that they were allowed to have an all-white, pretty ridiculous f***ing show for 12 years, that I enjoyed, too! But now I’m here… Imma talk about Black excellence all day.”
“But the microaggressions and some of the more traumatic elements of the Black experience are only being brought up because my castmates are stepping in it,” Eboni added.
Looking back at her experience with RHONY season 13, Eboni recalled a moment in which she engaged in a serious discussion with Bravo in regard to the need for more context about the conversations she and her co-stars had.
“We film hours, and then they show 44 minutes of content. That’s not enough to give context to these really heavy issues,” she shared. “So, I had to pick up the phone and I had to let the highest level of executive at both my production company–Share Media–and NBC Universal know ‘I need more from y’all. Period.'”
Overall, once the season was complete, Eboni said the network’s editing was “a very accurate depiction” of what she and her castmates went through.
Also during the interview, Eboni revealed why she felt it was a racial dig when Luann de Lesseps slammed her as “angry” during their cast trip to the Hamptons.
“I was left with no other conclusion that there’s a correlation between me as a Black woman and you describing me as angry. And I have to look no further than the discrepancy of you calling me angry [while] Leah cussed you out, called y’all h-es, and ran the h-ll out of [t]here. [