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The reality TV star made a post over the weekend, which has since been deleted, detailing the online racial abuse she has been exposed to since joining the show.
Reality TV star Annemarie Wiley on Saturday called out an online artist for drawing an allegedly racist caricature of her that Wiley said resembled a gorilla.
The “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” newcomer addressed the drawing’s creator on Instagram by sharing the picture on her page with a lengthy caption expressing her disgust with the caricature.
The drawing was featured on “DrunkDrawn,” a popular page by artist Ryan Casey, who is known for drawing outlandish and distorted pictures of “Real Housewives” cast members and other celebrities. In the recently deleted photo, The Daily Beast reported that Wiley’s muscles in her chest, arms, and shoulders were highly exaggerated, and her eyebrows were dark and heavy.
“This is nothing compared to microaggressions and name-calling,” Wiley responded in her now-deleted post that appeared on TMZ as a screen grab. “This is an entirely different level of racism and hatred.”
Wiley’s online racial encounter is the latest in a long line of examples of Black women being subjected to harmful, stereotypical tropes. Simone Biles, Michelle Obama, Ari Lennox, Teyana Taylor, and Serena Williams are just a few of the countless other Black women who have endured similar experiences online and in person.
Williams has dealt with racial abuse multiple times throughout her career. In 2019, a TV show host said on air that she “looks exactly like one of those monkeys at the zoo.” In 2018, an Australian newspaper printed a cartoon of Williams that depicted her as an “angry Black woman” throwing a temper tantrum during her match in the US Open Final. Former First Lady Michelle Obama experienced the uptick in racist cyberbullying throughout the eight years in her position. In 2009, Google issued an apology after photos surfaced of Obama resembling a monkey when users searched her name on the search engine.
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The comparison of Black women to animals has a long history rooted in anti-Blackness, misogyny and racism, which Wiley also acknowledged in her caption as she addressed the issue.
“Drawing a Black woman as a gorilla is disgusting and completely unacceptable,” Wiley wrote to her 34,700 followers. “Black women are strong and beautiful. Yet, we are villainized as combative, aggressive, angry, dangerous and animalistic at every opportunity.”
The DrunkDrawn account has since taken down the image, and Casey apologized to Wiley after seeing her comments.
The post said: “I made a mistake… I’ve seen Annemarie’s response, and several followers mention the racism this triggers, and I should have known better.” The post continued with Casey asking for forgiveness and stating that he would be more aware of his artwork going forward.
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