By: Taren Vaughan
Nicci Gilbert is definitely one to speak her opinion regardless of what anyone has to say about it. The fiery former member of 90’s group Brownstone made her way to reality TV as a member of season one of R&B Divas. And her introduction to reality TV wasn’t a smooth one as Nicci’s antics on the show gained her the image as the mean girl of the cast members. Very unhappy with how she was portrayed on the show, Nicci had a few words for the producers over how she looked. And Nicci had to continuously fight off rumors that she was getting shown the exit door by producers and that she was truly the woman that viewers saw on TV.
Though the “mean girl” image that she has been tagged with hasn’t sat well with Nicci, she has gotten to a point where she doesn’t care much about the people’s opinions of her as she told Madame Noire in a recent interview that she is not concerned about what people think about her behavior. And with season 2 of R&B Divas, Nicci Gilbert definitely is involved in some drama as the beef between her and Syleena Johnson has escalated, Syleena telling Nicci to “suck a bag of ten d*cks” as Nicci walked out of the house after a heated exchange took place between them.
Reality TV shows in general have become the guilty pleasure of many viewers who stay glued to the TV any time one of them comes on. However, there are just as many folks who feel that people on the show make African Americans look bad, namely African American women, some reality TV stars speaking out about their lack of desire to be role models. And Nicci Gilbert feels some type way about it as she went on a huge rant about the treatment that some black women get because of the actions of a select few and how people have no shame in fighting and being ratchet for money (Read from top to bottom):
Well if anyone is going to be dumb enough to lump all black women in the same category because of the things they see on certain reality shows, that person is an idiot and what they think about black women is invalid.
Agreed!
Iiiiiii dunno ma’am… I think that you’re giving the vast majority of the people in this country too much credit. These people who believe the negative stereotypes absolutely do matter. These people are the police officer that interacts with you negatively even though you don’t know that person and have done nothing wrong or the person who is the hiring manager on the job that you want that simply doesn’t call you back because you’re a black woman or man or the HR manager that doesn’t listen to your complaint because they think that you’re a loud mouthed troublemaker or the coach of your child’s sports team that treats him or her like a pariah because they have a negative perception of us… Images are POWERFUL.
Exactly! And my question is when are black women in the US going to realize all this. Their behavior since the day Mauri Povich first came on portraying us as “babies’ mommas” with chips on our shoulders i.e. animals, has gone global and viral now especially on youtube and every other social media! All you have to do is look at some of the commentary there around the world. I hope at least the “Married to Medicine” show does us some good – for once.
And all I see prominent people and media pundits doing is making excuses for anything we do wrong. Personally, I think some of us are starting to believe our the hype! I’m tired of hearing about my brother being followed for driving while black in his nice car in his own California neighborhood, but I sure as heck know who to blame nowadays …and its certainly not “the MAN”.
Umm, you do know the black women on Married to Medicine already had a fist fight right? See, this is why I don’t care about silly people who try to label me by what they see on TV. I don’t care what stupid people think about me or my race. They have never respected us, even when were respectable they were calling us n-ggers and porch monkeys, keeping us separate from them. I’m too busy winning and using my success to hurt them where it really matters.
Yeah, I was going to say about “Married to Medicine” that I hope they change things up a bit, but it doesn’t look good for now. I think everybody knows how “racist whites” were but like I said whites are not the only people believing the hype. All you have to do is notice the way black people treat each other, and the way they try to pull each other down. We are only hurting or else destroying ourselves in commonly accepting this type of behavior. Insulting people or calling others “idiots”, being violent for no good reason, etc., doesn’t become any group of people, especially black women. And the point is that is all we can see and ACCEPT of ourselves and thus respond accordingly and DIS-respectfully. If we can’t respect ourselves we can hardly expect anybody else to do so. I’m not interested in “hurting” white people, Porscha, and nobody with self-respect in my view would be either I believe unless they felt threatened by them. As I said in my view the enemy is no longer “the MAN” – its us.
BTW – the last cop that stopped my brother in his nice car was a black man and the principals in the schools in my suburban neighborhood don’t hire any more black teachers than the white ones. In fact they hire less.
The problem is you’re blaming things that existed before reality TV on reality TV, whether it’s black on black or not. That’s not logical.
You’re talking about self-hate. That is something that has nothing to do with reality TV and everything to do with what we are teaching our children. Again, education is the only way. I know black people who struggled to get jobs with degrees, so they turned around and started businesses. Pity parties won’t help our race. Action, education, and self-preservance is the answer. I respect what you’re saying though.
I respectfully disagree. You see, racist whites thought badly about us since they brought us over here from America. They have never respected us and even if you take away negative images off of TV of us, they will still call you everything but a child of God. Stop letting these people get in your head. That’s their whole point is to break you down.
Lastly, black people need to stop worrying about what white people think of us. They don’t care about what we think about them! To care that much is mental enslavement! Are we free or not? Much respect though.
So what was she doing when she was getting loud and cursing people out on her show? That’s just as bad.
Thank you.
Agreed!
It’s called, “hello pot, meet kettle.”
People get on my nerves with this. I’m grown, I will watch what I want. There’s numerous portrayals of blacks on TV now, don’t like it, don’t watch. Racist/ignorant whites will always see what they want to anyway.
Girl stop. You’re just as tacky as K. Michelle and them. Yelling at grown women on TV.
I need people to double check their twitter and Instagram rants for proper spelling and grammar before they post. This wonderful rant is marred by the improper use of there and their! UGH!!!
I blame Evelyn Lozada, a Latina for screwing it up for all black reality stars!
Uhh racism existed BEFORE reality TV. It will be here when it’s gone too. In fact, it’s white people doing trashy things on TV, but black folks aren’t lumping them in one category, now are we? I’m tired of hearing about this. People will think what they want about you. Who cares?
Black people are not a monolithic race. No race is. The human race is mixed up with different personalities, personal experiences, and takes on life. At some point, black people need to understand this. We were not placed here to spend the rest of our time on earth trying to prove that we are smart, classy people to whites. And why should we? We were the first mathematicians, scientists, and kings and queens. We built the pyramids. The first human being remains were found in Africa. African blood flows in all of our veins, white people too. We have nothing to prove to anyone, if you think otherwise, you should read more about our real history. Racism was meant to be a shackle and some of you are allowing it to still hold you captive by complaining because you want to prove something to ignorant white people. I refuse.
They have ignorant whites on TV, yet none of you have lumped them all in one category. So why allow them to do that to us? This conversation has played its course. Live your life and stop giving the wrong people power over how you view your own race.