Though the second season of “Owning Manhattan” dropped at the top of December, more and more people are just now starting to tune in. But for Black women in particular who are watching, they’re seeing themselves depicted on the small screen as it relates to their challenging time working in corporate America.
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If you’re unaware “Owning Manhattan” follows the Serhant luxury real estate agency in New York City and the multi-million dollar deals that founder Ryan Serhant and his team of agents get done. If you take one look at the discourse on TikTok specifically, Black women are pointing to the Afro-Latino agent Genesis Suero and her experience working there.
In one episode, she’s confronted by two white agents who allege that she tried to steal one of their clients. In another episode, she’s the first to secure a contract for a brand new listing that she and those same white agents were super skeptical about it and questioned it’s validity.
While Suero provided receipts that she didn’t steal the client and provided proof of her contract with the listing, the fact that she was dealing with the microaggressions from the white members of her team were something other Black women in the corporate space could directly relate to. (For a refresher, microagressions are defined as a comment or action that subtly and often unconsciously or unintentionally expresses a prejudiced attitude toward a member of a marginalized group, such as a racial minority, per Merriam-Webster.)
“I have felt the side of this on both ends. You know as a Black woman, I have experienced ageism, I’ve experienced prejudice,” said TikTok user Kalema. I’ve experienced racism, I’ve experienced sexism. All of these things are so inherent in the corporate American structure. And I think that shows like ‘Owning Manhattan’ just show that and it capitalizes off that.”
User MamaTiff explained that the problem with “entitled and threatened white people” in that world is that they often always assume the worst without asking questions and trying to figure out the entirety of a situation. She also explained that when a Black woman is a high-achiever and a high performer, has her hands in many fields and is beautiful, she’s considered a supreme threat to everyone else — especially white people.
“Let me be clear when I say that Black women are high-achievers not by choice. But because we have to excel, we have to be better than the next person besides us. We can’t be mediocre, like some of y’all. But thank you Netflix because oftentimes these are the things that Black women go through, but we don’t have it on tape to show you and oftentimes we’re not believed or it’s downplayed,” she said.
One user on TikTok also expressed in part: “The IMMEDIATE assumption that genesis was in the wrong was crazy!!!!! And the amount of aggression they had towards her until they realized they were in the wrong was unwarranted.”
Even other women of color were calling out the microagressions displayed on the show and that’s saying something, too. We all know that Black women have to operate within the intersection of both racial and gender bias and that working in the corporate world means more opportunities for those biases to come into play through subtle shady emails, remarks in the meeting rooms and more.
It’s about time conversations like this take centerstage and if we have to use a luxury real estate show, to do so, then so be it!
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