Disgraced former cast member of The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City Jennie Nguyen continues to get dragged by fans in the wake of her cringe-worthy Instagram Live appearance. When her offensive Facebook posts from 2020 were discovered, Jennie issued an apology statement that included "At the time, I thought I was speaking out against violence, but I have since learned how offensive and hurtful my words were." The public was largely unmoved, with legions of viewers demanding her immediate dismissal. Ultimately, Bravo agreed and she was fired. The IG Live was her second attempt to do damage control following her less-than-well-received Instagram apology.
Fans and co-stars have universally expressed distain for Jennie's controversial Facebook posts, which made light of the Black Lives Matter Movement via racially insensitive graphics and cartoons. Yesterday, the self-professed "proud Republican" invited a Black friend named Michael to join her as she made another attempt to address the fallout from the scandal. For several days following the apology post, Jennie was inactive on the app, but returned to the grid in a pic with Michael and the accompanying caption, "Michael, I am so grateful for our friendship. Thank you for always showing up and love me." Commenters were outraged at Jennie's post and what they perceived to be a shameless ploy, "Look!!! I have a black friend!" and "Delete this is embarrassing."
Daily Mail followed up on what they called Jennie's "cringe-worthy" Instagram Live appearance with Michael, who shared that he was gay. Michael spoke extensively stating that, "because this is one of my closest friends, I soldiered up and that's why I'm here." For her part, Jennie nodded in enthusiastic agreement at his effusive praise of her character. At one point she said, "I understand that black people suffer a lot." By and large the commenters weren't having it. One said, "Here let me get my one black friend so it looks better. Girl bye." Another said, "see, I have black friends."
Michael continued to give her credit for "owning up" and "taking responsibility" for the damage Jennie now assigns to a "team" who she claims was handling her social media at the time. Co-star Jen Shah, who is embroiled in her own legal problems, was livid at the effort and said, "She's lying and she already admitted to my face that she posted each and every one of those disgusting posts HERSELF." Shah, who is married to a black man with whom she shares two sons, went on to accuse Jennie of "performative sklackivism." Shah concluded that Jennie's IG Live only illustrated that she hasn't learned and isn't sorry.
In the world of the housewives allegiances change like the wind and those who are bitter rivals one week are often allies the next. This incident, however, has the potential to give Jennie permanent pariah status. Jennie, who spent most of her first season on The Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City angry at castmate Mary Cosby's racist comments, is surely feeling the sting of irony. To be sure, Mary's comments were unacceptable, but viewers have been quick to point out Jennie's blatant hypocrisy. Nowadays, fans balk at blaming a "team" for reprehensible social media posts and pulling the "I have a black friend" card just isn't a good look. Housewives can "own it" as much as they want when it comes to this type of drama, but fans won't always excuse it. Despite this unsavory incident, Jennie still has fans who are rooting for her to come out of this unfortunate chapter a better person.
Source: Daily Mail, Jennie Nguyen/Instagram