RHOCs Kelly Dodd and Braunwyn Windham-Burke fight over protests against statue removal

“The Real Housewives of Orange County” addressed the Black Lives Matter movement and removed statues honoring historical figures with a racist past at Wednesday’s new hour – where it soon became apparent that the women were not on the same side of the problems.

The episode followed Kelly Dodd, Gina Kirschenheiter, Braunwyn Windham-Burke and Elizabeth Lyn Vargas on a trip to Lake Arrowhead – with Shannon Beador and Emily Simpson staying at home while their families fought Covid.

Dodd and Elizabeth had a conversation about Braunwyn’s posts during the BLM protests – they said they supported the case, but criticisms of Windham-Burke made it to social media.

“Be for the cause, but don’t have a professional photo,” said Dodd. “It’s all about her image and she’s full of shit.”

“If you’re really invested in it, you don’t protest and let a professional photographer take pictures of you,” she added. “That just defeats the whole purpose of the protest!”

Later in the episode, the women were all about Dodd’s relationship with Fox News reporter Rick Leventhal – leading to a conversation about the removal of statues commemorating figures linked to slavery and colonialism.

Dodd claimed that Leventhal was not political or conservative, despite his affiliation with Fox News, Dodd said he simply “doesn’t believe in breaking down history.”

To get more specific, she turned to statues of Christopher Columbus, “which has been around since 1886”. While Braunwyn claimed such images are offensive to marginalized communities, Dodd exclaimed, “You can’t rewrite history!”

“I don’t think anyone is trying to rewrite it,” Braunwyn replied.

Dodd’s answer: “Are you going to tear down Rome? You’re going to tear down the Colosseum? You have to learn from history so it doesn’t repeat itself!”

In a confessional, Braunwyn said it was important to respect how marginalized people feel. She added that “you don’t destroy history by taking down a statue. A statue doesn’t educate, a statue sits there and pigeons shit on it.”

While Braunwyn told Kelly it’s important to listen to the oppressed, Dodd shouted, “You can’t go and destroy things and loot and destroy. They shouldn’t screw it up, they should come together and vote on it. Democracy.”

Braunwyn said that “being nice for hundreds of years” has clearly not worked for protesters and said she was all about taking down statues dedicated to Columbus.

In confessions, Dodd condemned her costar as “ not college educated, ” while Braunwyn said she had “ never seen anyone go to the state of Arizona who thinks they are a Mensa member, except Kelly Dodd. ”

When Dodd – who is Mexican – told the group that she is a minority, Braunwyn argued that it was not the same as being a black person in America.

‘If you go to the supermarket in a hoodie, you don’t have to worry about getting shot. None of us are here, ”she said. “Black people are being murdered disproportionately by the police.”

‘There are bad cops! I know, ”Dodd exclaimed. “You’re not going to fix it by destroying things!”

Gina then took her own white privilege into the conversation, from the POV of someone arrested for a DUI last year. “I was afraid because I stopped doing it, I was afraid of the consequences,” she said, adding, “I was never afraid of the police officers who arrested me.”

Elizabeth, meanwhile, said she hadn’t really learned anything about white privilege until this year – noting that while she’s “ not getting everything, ” she’s “ coming. ”

The conversation ended when Dodd jumped into the kitchen to put on the table the salmon they had prepared for dinner.

“RHOC” airs Wednesdays on Bravo.