Maybe Y'all Hate Candiace Dillard Bassett Because She's Not Struggling

Your favorite housewife is back with a new house, new music, and her signature “smart ass mouth.” Candiace Dillard Bassett is certainly one of the most talked-about castmates on The Real Housewives of Potomac, but it’s harder to pinpoint why she is the most polarizing—a topic she told Jezebel that she recently discussed with a friend.

“I don’t know that this is completely true, but I feel like there is this idea that black women—if we’re not struggling, we’re not real,” Bassett said. “If a black woman doesn’t have an up-from-nothing story, a bootstraps story—which is an incredible journey and I have immense respect for black women who come from those environments—but it should also be OK for black women to come from financial privilege.”

She is also labeled angrier and messier than the other ladies, who she feels benefit from light-skinned privilege—especially her on-screen nemesis, Ashley “the-only-thing-messier-than-two-boys-is-me” Darby, who Bassett simply refers to as “that thing.”

“We’ve all taken turns, having not so glamorous moments,” says Bassett. “But for some reason, the way that I emote, or interact, or react is deemed darker and worse.”

Bassett describes this season’s drama as “in your face” but also “intimate” and it sure sounds like the newest housewife, Mia Thornton, shows up doing the most—I mean, she’s already throwing salad in the trailer. Bassett had nice things to say about her, though. “What I love about Mia is that she is unapologetically who she is, even if it’s a little trifling at times,” she says. “In the beginning, though, it was intense because she kind of gets into it with everybody.”

In the video above, Bassett digs deeper into light-skinned privilege, shares the status of her relationship with Ashley, and explains why her relationship with Karen will never, ever be the same.