Unpopular Opinion: Black women and the actions they make are not representative of ALL black women

I have an opinion that may be very unpopular.

I am in the middle of my first rewatch of RHOP and I am on Season 5, the episode where the ladies are at Karen’s house discussing the Monique v Candice altercation. There is a lot of talk about how wrong Monique is, which is true, and how she is making black women look bad which I wholeheartedly disagree with.

I don’t believe that we as black people even need to partake in respectability politics at all because at the end of the day, whether it’s Monique fighting Candice, or Sexy Redd being promiscuous, or Kamala Harris being the first black VP, people’s disdain for black people and black women are going to exist regardless, because of the ignorance that racism and prejudice breeds. It doesn’t matter what we do and it shouldn’t be our responsibility to sway the opinions of those who have already decided to hate and disrespect us.

Obviously what Monique did was very wrong and I don’t believe Candice is innocent either, but I hate how black women are treated as a spokesperson or representative of all black women as we live our lives and experience adversities, traumas, successes, and triumphs. It’s almost like we’re still tap dancing for white people so we can be like “Look! I’s one of the good ones!! See! We not all bad!!” when it doesn’t matter whether we’re good or bad. If they are going to look at a Sexy Redd type of woman, and see her as a representative of all black women, despite knowing of the Michelle Obama’s and Kamala Harris’ and multitude of successful and admirable black women, then they were never going to look at us any other way. If they want to deduce us down to one persons actions and behaviors, chances are that they were going to find any and every other reason to disrespect and stereotype us as black women. So fuck them, lol.

I’m aware some may disagree with me, but that’s okay. I am tired and refuse to feel guilt or shame for the actions of another black woman that has nothing to do with me, nor does it represent how I act, feel, or behave.

Just my opinion, may delete later lol.

EDIT: I also wonder if Monique was dealing with some postpartum depression/anxiety because she’s definitely off this season. She’s usually sweet and carefree and maybe she just let the mask slip but knowing she just recently had a child, and knowing that my depression and anxiety manifests in irritability (not violence), it makes me wonder if she was going through something mentally and emotionally and if so, I wish that was more of the focus of the conversation rather than how she is somehow a representative of black women as a whole.