Eboni K. Williams’ ‘Bus Driver’ Comments Spark Debate About Race And Relationships
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Eboni K. Williams sparked a major controversy after commenting that she would only date a bus driver “if he owns the bus”.
The lawyer and television host spoke to Iyanla Vanzant about masculine vs. feminine energy in an interview on The Grio.
Williams claimed that because of reasons like income and status, many women feel that the dating pool is unbalanced. She asked Vanzant for advice for women who want to position themselves to be more feminine in romantic relationships. Her response to Vanzant’s question — “Would you date a bus driver?” — led to a social media frenzy. See the full clip below.
“That’s a problem…The standards and the criteria that we use to measure men is off for who we are as women and who they are in society. I would date a bus driver,” Vanzant, 69, said.
Williams’ statement has been criticized as being “anti-Black.” She recently released her book Bet on Black: The Good News About Being Black in America and was the Real Housewives of New York’s first Black cast member.
Since the clip surfaced last week, Williams has taken to several different platforms to defend and further explain her thoughts on the matter.
“No matter your position or how this convo makes you feel () we have GOT to reckon with the strata of these issues within the Black community now…or deal with consequences later,” she wrote on Instagram, posting about her heated debate with DJ Envy on The Breakfast Club.
She said she believes that though controversial, the conversation is necessary for Black culture.
One thing is for sure: Williams has never been shy about sharing her opinions, including the time she criticized Donald Trump when she was working as a host on Fox News. That led to death threats among more than 100 messages from viewers who disliked her commentary berating Trump for siding with violent white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
In her commentary, Williams described Trump’s initial remarks on the melee at the rally as “cowardly and dangerous.”
Williams said she was no longer willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt that Jews, Blacks, Hispanics and the LGBT community are segments of the nation who are included in his campaign promise to “Make America Great Again.” She added that Trump “did the math” and calculated that he’s willing to say anything to hold on to his racist base.
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