Reality TV's 9 Worst Stock Characters

The angry black woman (ABW)--also known in the reality TV universe as an entitled diva with attitude--made her network debut on America's Next Top Model, which has cast one "black bitch" (in the words of series host and producer Tyra Banks) after another. But this stock character reinforces regressive racial stereotypes in many reality genres, from relationship and lifestyle series to competitions. On Wife Swap the first thing we learn about "pampered" African-American hairdresser D'eva Robinson is that "I consider myself a diva so much that I am legally changing my name to D'eva." This bitchy bogeywoman takes up permanent residence on The Real Housewives of Atlanta, where black women's backstabbing, verbal sparring, and physical fights draw boffo ratings for Bravo. We met reality TV's most polarizing ABW in 2004, when The Apprentice's Omarosa Manigault-Stallworth became the most famous nonwhite personality ever to emerge from network reality television: "the most reviled person in reality TV history," according to TV Guide. A Mahogany magazine cover-story headline attributed her supposedly diabolical behavior to genetics: NATURAL BORN VILLAIN. Print, broadcast, and online journalists--not to mention bloggers and TV fans--described her as an "evil sistah," a "moral cretin," and a "she-devil."