Real Housewives adding minority cast members to its all-white shows has complicated "the Bravo wink" when it comes to racist behavior

The Daily Beast

"Bravo’s slate of identity-focused reality shows over the past 15 years have come to define the famously messy network, beginning with the inaugural Real Housewives of Orange County and expanding into series like Vanderpump Rules, Southern Charm and Below Deck—and they’ve always provided a generally self-aware, almost hate-watching experience," says Kyndall Cunningham. "In a Vulture feature published in April called ‘The Soul of Bravo,' in which writer Anna Peele examines the network’s growing conscience in the wake of Trump and the Black Lives Matter movement, she mentions what the network’s mascot Andy Cohen calls 'the Bravo wink'—a way of editing that signals the absurdity or incorrectness of a comment or action made by a cast member to the audience. Like clockwork, conversations about whatever offensive remark a housewife utters or culturally insensitive costume one of them dons is typically hashed out online and might even make it on one of Cohen’s cue cards at the reunion if it gets enough buzz. But it’s easier to execute 'the Bravo wink' while maintaining the playfulness of a Real Housewives show when there’s no one to address that behavior on-screen. Since women of color like (Eboni K. Williams), Garcelle Beauvais and Crystal Kung Minkoff on Beverly Hills, and Tiffany Moon on Dallas have been brought on in an attempt to end the franchise’s primarily racially-segregated past, the problematic behavior from white housewives that viewers are used to either laughing off or being briefly distraught over complicates their non-white castmates’ roles on these shows, and creates unrealistic expectations to rebuke and educate without shifting the core chemistry of the group."