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Is Real Housewives of Salt Lake City built on racial trauma? Its most interesting characters of RHSLC are Jen Shah, the blackfishing Asian entrepreneur wife of a black NBA coach, and Mary Cosby, a crackpot Pastor and designer disaster even Jesus can’t save.
Hard not to sympathize with explosive Jen when the subtext of her blackfishing is being othered by Whites and Asians alike as the only Asian in town, and with a black husband and sons.
Even more so Mary, who reluctantly married her Grandmother’s husband! Mary sometimes displays worrying self-hatred to fit in. She’s a fragile character who copes by immersing herself in the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately it’s not God she needs, it’s therapy and possibly medication to review her life choices.
I’m interested to see what happens next season but am uncomfortable that the show’s success seems built on a fascination with black and brown trauma.
