Kim Zolciak Cried Some Big White Tears in the RHOA Reunion

Let’s begin with a sarcastic slow cap to Kim Zolciak-Biermann for her performance as “white woman victim No. 45948358493” on The Real Housewives of Atlanta.

All the drawn-out reunion segments this season led us to Sunday night’s finale, in which Kim and Nene got to argue about what they argued about during production—as part of an argument that began late last year when the show wasn’t filming. To refresh: Kim’s daughter Brielle captured cell phone footage of what she alleged was a roach taking a walk in Nene’s home. Kim called Nene “sick and disgusting” and said she lived in a “roach nest.” Nene’s husband dressed up as a roach for Halloween.

Andy Cohen started last night’s reunion finale with a solemn request: “I wanna talk about the roaches as a metaphor for racism”—which Kim considered “ridiculous.”

“You’re fucking reaching. You’re reaching!” Kim screamed, when maybe she should listen first. Kandi tried to explain to Kim that her roach comment was out of line because it was akin to comparing Nene to someone living in the projects. “Don’t try it. It has nothing to do with the projects or none of that shit,” Kim said. “A roach is a fucking roach. That’s it.” A roach is a roach, but Kim has many times had a funny racist way of expressing her frustration with her cast mates.

Once the reunion ended (see the clip above), Kim went off to her dressing room, where she cried to Andy about the treatment she received during the reunion and what she perceived as a gang-up. “Andy, like how much can a person take?” she said. “There wasn’t even one positive question for me…That bitch knows I’m not fucking racist. NeNe knows I’m not racist. You know why you have not found another white woman to sit on that motherfucker? Because nobody is dumb enough to do that!” Hmm.

Kim added, “Put yourself in my shoes: five African-American women just fucking hammering. I couldn’t even speak. Like, my mind’s a fucking whirlwind.” Putting the last needless nail on the conversation coffin, Kim added:

“This whole racism thing in this day in age is bullshit. Everyone of those motherfuckers on that couch owe this world a fucking apology for this racism shit! They already tried to claim that shit long ago, Sheree, as you know. Nobody bought into it then because the social media wasn’t there and racism wasn’t all that real. You know it.”

When Kim says they “tried to claim that shit,” I think she’s referring to the previous times she was called racist, including the episode where Nene accused Kim of treating her assistant like a slave. And when Kim says, “Racism wasn’t all that fucking real,” I think that’s her being delusional while her best black friend Sheree stands there through the white tears.

Besides Kim’s great privileged revelation that racism was only recently born, what’s also revealing is her comment about being the only white woman on the Atlanta franchise (which allows her to paint herself as a victim and outsider), as well as her statement that Bravo has apparently had trouble finding another white woman to join the cast. (One reason may be that Atlanta has a lot of black people.) In its own way, the Real Housewives franchise, and the way Bravo has segregated Atlanta and Potomac while being seemingly unable to find wealthy non-white women in other areas, has illuminated the problems around who gets to be what’s considered wealthy in America in the first place, and who gets to then flaunt that perceived affluence on television. Kim revealed as much in her tearful breakdown to Andy, for which her face barely moved.