Real Housewives: Ramona Singer’s racism allegations, explained

In the past week, three platforms have severed ties with Real Housewives of New York alum Ramona Singer, after multiple alleged racist remarks by the reality star have come to light. Most recently, Singer has been removed from the lineup at BravoCon, an upcoming convention for fans of the network’s reality shows, where several alumni from the Real Housewives franchise are expected to attend.

The evening prior, it was reported that Singer, a businesswoman by trade, had been fired by her real estate agency of two years, Douglas Elliman. While not confirmed, Vulture have claimed that Singer may be dropped from the upcoming reality spin-off, Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: Morocco — although the season is reportedly being dropped altogether due to further controversy with Singer’s co-star, Brandi Glanville, and the allegations of sexual misconduct made against the star.

Real Housewives: Ramona Singer’s racism allegations, explained

Allegations of racism against Ramona Singer were first reported by Vanity Fair in an investigative piece published on October 30th, detailing instances on the set of RHONY between 2020 and 2021. According to the outlet, Singer had used the N-word on set, directed at Darian Edmondson, a Black producer on the show. The incident was said to have occurred when Singer was discussing the use of Catholic and Jewish slurs, using the N-word in full and directed at Edmondson as a comparison.

The piece also interviewed Eboni K. Williams, the first Black woman to feature as a housewife on RHONY. According to Williams, Singer was asked to attend a virtual “education session” in which they discussed racial sensitivity and avoiding stereotypes, after a number of instances by white cast members.

When a discussion began over a stereotype about Blavk children not having fathers, Singer responded “What if they don’t have a father? Why can’t I say that?” before concluding “Most of them don’t.” When a publicist for the show — also a Black woman — responded that she had a relationship with her father, Singer told her she was an exception to the rule.

In another incident, Williams walked off of set when her co-star, Luann de Lesseps, called her “an angry woman,” which Williams interpreted as perpetuating the “angry Black woman” stereotype. Seeing Williams depart, Singer is reported to have said, “This is why we didn’t need Black people on the show,” adding, “This is gonna ruin our show.”

In a separate incident, Singer reportedly said she had trouble telling the Black crew members apart from one another. According to Williams, Singer’s behavior played a large part in her decision to attempt to quit the show, before the series was ultimately recast entirely.

Singer has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and refuted many of the claims by Williams and other crew members. She denied allegations of using racial slurs and remarks about Black people “ruining” RHONY, but did confirm her comments about Black fathers.

“The training included open dialogue,” Singer responded. “In that spirit, I asked a question about a statistic I had read about single-parent households, where children with single-parent households were statistically less likely to succeed than two-parent households.”

To make matters worse, while responding to a request for comment from Page Six regarding the recent allegations, Singer continued to use racist language. As reported by the outlet with a provided screenshot, the reality star used the first couple of letters of the N-word, while attempting to explain that she doesn’t use the N-word.

Needless to say, this did little to refute the mounting allegations of racism and discriminatory behavior by Singer. Rather, they did the opposite — as her decision to use the slur showed a willingness to quote the word, as alleged by Vanity Fair earlier that week. The texts resulted in Singer being asked not to attend a BravoCon panel in which she was expected to answer Q&A questions from fans.

While RHONY was entirely recast between seasons 13 and 14, Singer’s continued platforming by the Bravo network, despite their knowledge of such allegations, highlights a large-scale issue regarding racism at the reality TV giant. The fact that Singer wasn’t dropped after the Vanity Fair report, but instead after the text messages were posted by Page Six, has done little to reassure fans of the series that the network takes allegations of racism and abusive behavior seriously.