Per Variety, Bravo’s Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills spinoff Vanderpump Rules has fired original cast members Stassi Schroeder and Kristen Doute for levying racist actions against Black castmate Faith Stowers. Their release comes a week after Stowers shared an experience from 2018 in an Instagram Live session. In her account, Schroeder and Doute called the police and falsely reported her for crimes that she did not commit. They apparently based their call on a Daily Mail article that detailed a string of robberies even though the woman pictured was not Stowers.
“There was this article on Daily Mail where there was an African-American lady,” Stowers shared during the June 2 chat. “It was a weird photo, so she looked very light-skinned and had these different, weird tattoos. They showcased her, and I guess this woman was robbing people. And they called the cops and said it was me.” Schroeder had already confirmed the incident back in 2018 on the Bitch Bible podcast. At the time, Doute had shared the Schroeder’s appearance with a tweet that read, “hey tweeties, doesn’t this ex #pumprules thief look familiar? someone put her on mtv & gave her a platform for press. I didn’t wanna go there but I’m going there.” Schroeder and Doute have both recently issued apologies.
Bravo has also let go of new cast members Max Boyens and Brett Caprioni for past racist tweets, which resurfaced after the most recent season premiered in January. While the network’s actions appear to align with others that are similarly cleaning house after the civil unrest sparked by George Floyd’s murder (just yesterday, CW’s The Flash fired Hartley Sawyer for his own host of vile tweets), we can’t ignore the inexcusable amount of time it took for Bravo to take any sort of real action, especially in the cases of Schroeder and Doute. Oh well. Better wildly late than never, right?
Looking for ways to advocate for Black lives? Check out this list of resources by our sister site Lifehacker for ways to get involved.