"The Omarosa Effect": The former Apprentice villain and Trump advisor has done real harm to cultural representation of black women

Slate

"Like the archetype of the 'strong black woman' (i.e., Olivia Pope), Omarosa and her imitators position themselves as impenetrable, unbreakable, and unemotional," says Robin M. Boylorn. "Real black women are not that strong or magical or unaffected by pain. The Omarosa trope is what happens when your fear, anxiety, sadness, and vulnerability are edited out of the version of your life that everyone can see." Boylorn adds: "Omarosa taught us to see her as a caricature whose calculating ways, business savvy, and money-seeking hustle took her from the boardroom to the penthouse to the White House. She really did win the prize she’d initially sought on a television show, but she got more than she bargained for. In real life as in reality TV, it’s not so easy to turn a villain into a victim."