Vanderpump Rules, a BravoTV network reality spinoff of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills set in a Los Angeles restaurant owned by Lisa Vanderpump, has often been criticized for its lack of diversity in past seasons. Faith Stowers, the only black woman on an overwhelming white show, recently discussed her experiences, recalling the “attacks” she faced from her fellow cast members.
What We Know:
- At an attempt to diversify the cast, Lisa Vanderpump, also an executive producer to the show, hired Stowers in 2015. Stowers recalls sitting down with Vanderpump and her publicists and being told, “we don’t have a lot of color on this show, and you would make a good asset to that”, making it less about diversity and more about Vanderpump’s public image as an equal opportunity employer.
- Stowers recently joined MTV star Candace Renee Rice on Instagram Live to discuss the topic of Stower’s experience on an all-white cast and her relationships with her castmates, “I did a show with an all-white cast. I was the only black person on the show. It was a lot”. While Stowers didn’t originally name any of her co-stars, but two, Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute, came into the limelight and have faced extreme backlash from their actions.
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I take the time to talk to Faith and really break down what’s going on in the world right now.
- Stowers appeared on just one season of the show, season 4, with a recurring guest appearance in season 6. But it was during her season 6 appearances, that she faced the largest amount of racism and discrimination from her castmates as she found herself involved in a scandal with Jax Taylor, a long time star of the show, known for his lack of responsibility and infidelity.
- Taylor cheated on his then-girlfriend, now-wife, Brittany Cartwright with Stowers prior to the premiere of season 6 and she recalls the extreme and unequal backlash she faced compared to her counterpart, Taylor. During the Instagram Live, Stowers shared, “I felt like after their friend did something that we both were involved in that he’s done like, a thousand times…they wanted to attack me instead of him. It was like they wanted to attack, attack, attack, attack, attack. ‘I was wrong and I was this and I was that,’ calling me names, saying my hair was nappy, which is weird coming out of their mouths.”
- Stowers said, “I definitely felt like I was being treated differently from everybody else” when Schroeder and Doute focused their wrath on her instead of Taylor, but it reached the breaking point when Schroeder and Doute called the cops on her and tried to get Stowers arrested.
- Schroeder and Doute called the police on Stowers after Daily Mail released a story about a black woman allegedly drugging and robbing men she met in Hollywood nightclubs. Stowers shared, “it was just funny, because they thought it was me because it was a black woman with a weave”. Adding, “so they just assumed it would be me, and they called the cops on me. It didn’t work, so they were upset about that”.
- Schroeder even bragged about the incident on a since-deleted episode of the podcast, The Bible Bitch saying, “we are like, we just solved a f’ing crime. We started calling the police”. Doute also shared the Daily Mail story, with a since-deleted tweet calling Stowers out as the criminal in question.
- The racial profiling exhibited in the actions of Schroeder and Doute went largely unaddressed until Stowers’ recent Instagram Live with Rice where she called out the actions of her two former co-stars. Following the accusations, the pair has received a firestorm of negative comments and demands to be held accountable.
- Following several days of silence, both Schroeder and Doute released apologies within minutes of each other on Instagram Sunday night. The apologies, below, show the Vanderpump Rules stars claiming that this was not a racially driven act against Stowers, but an emotional one that they didn’t realize the ramifications of or their own privilege in the situation. Both vow to do better.
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- The posts received major criticism as it came to fruition that neither Doute nor Schroeder apologized directly to Stowers for their actions. Many also saw this as a very generalized message, simply a PR move for both of the women and not an apology full of genuine remorse.
- Following Stowers’ allegations, some brands decided to cut ties with Schroeder, including Secret Deodorant, shaving brand Billie, vitamin brand Ritual, Screwball Whiskey, her publicist, and her agent.
- This is not the first time Schroeder has been embroiled in a public controversy dealing with social justice issues. Older, now deleted, podcast clips from Schroeder’s own podcast, Straight Up With Stassi, and continued appearances on The Bible Bitch, present Schroeder’s insensitive comments about the #MeToo movement as well as the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
- On Tuesday, Bravo issued a statement confirming that Schroeder and Doute have been fired and will not be returning to Vanderpump Rules.
On the overall experience of being on Vanderpump Rules, Stowers says, “It was a lot, but I feel like now I’m in a way better position anyway, so it’s fine”.
