Here you go r424 (1/2):
OVERNIGHTS JUNE 29, 2021 The Real Housewives of New York City Recap: Harlem Shook
Eboni brought all of the girls to Harlem and it is one of the most boring episodes of Real Housewives of New York City in modern memory. I mean, this thing was like watching Cindy Barshop on a powerful edible, just lying on the couch snoring and not even giving us a flash of vajazzle to vajazzle things up.
This is hard, because what Eboni is doing is very important. As John Oliver said, “I think she’s doing a great job and I think trying to teach those particular women about the Black experience in America is a thankless task.” He is absolutely correct, but Eboni needs to be about a little bit more, or at least go about it a little bit differently. I loved that she gave the women candles from the Harlem Candle Company to match their personalities. As Eboni says, her love language is gifts, and there is not a Real Housewife who will turn down a gift. This was a little meaningful thing that hopefully they could read about when they get home and educate themselves more about the neighborhood and the Black excellence that it has always embodied.
However, she lost me at telling each of the women who they were assigned at dinner. Each of them had a pamphlet sitting on their plates about a figure of the Harlem Renaissance — Zora Neale Hurston, W.E.B. Du Bois, James Baldwin — but then in addition to that she went around telling the women about each of these people, and they all quickly lost focus and said that they felt like they were in school. I think what Eboni is attempting here is great, she is definitely trying to broaden these women’s horizons, but why not make it more into a game? She should know that these ladies love nothing more than talking about themselves, so why not have each of them act out the person on their plates? Or maybe just say, “I prepared a little pamphlet about each person, I hope you enjoy reading about them,” and then they could either choose to accept this homework assignment or feed it to Coco, the oldest living dog in New York.
Even brand new friend-of Bershan Shaw isn’t really having it. She is a new “friend” of Ramona’s, and she says they were introduced a few months ago by mutual friends. Do those mutual friends also happen to be producers on a certain reality television program, because I have an idea that they didn’t meet by happenstance in the Hamptons. I mean, we’ve seen Ramona’s friends and they look like the models for the Madeleine Albright Brooch Collection Catalogue. Bershan says at dinner that she thinks that all people, white, Black, Asian, etc., are “all the same.” Eboni is like, “Um, no, sis, we’re not,” and says that she feels like her message is being undermined a bit. I don’t disagree with her. We learned from Crystal Kung Minkoff why saying “I don’t see color” is outdated, and I think that point totally applies to what Bershan has to say as well.
The problem for Eboni, though, is she can’t seem to get out of her schoolmarm role. The most interesting thing she says all episode is at her lunch with Leah (who’s dressed like the bratty ’90s teen that she will always be). She says that after the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, she didn’t want to be the “Black teacher” anymore. I took this to mean she almost dropped out of filming the show because she thought it would be too much work and she would receive too much backlash for trying to bring race onto a meringue confection of a show like RHONY. Yeah, it might be a meringue dessert, but, girl, she is an Eton Mess. (Sorry, that was an English-people joke.)