To be fair to a woman who has established that she’s a racist a-hole, we are relying on secondhand accounts of a talk which Bethenny Frankel gave to a room of women business owners, at a conference called Project Entrepreneur. Jezebel compiled the responses to Bethenny’s speech and several attendees were outraged. Bethenny allegedly (again this is secondhand as there is no video) told minority women that they should hire white male spokespeople for their businesses. Several attendees tweeted about this. Bethenny also reportedly suggested using sex for business purposes. When two women of color got up during the Q&A session to tell Bethenny how wrong she was, they were shut down.
An entrepreneur named Mary Pryor blogged about her experience trying to question Bethenny about her offensive speech:
I was one of the women who tried to stand up to reality TV star and Skinny Girl Vodka founder, Bethenny Frankel, at a women’s entrepreneurial summit over the weekend. And was silenced.
As a participant in Rent The Runway’s and UBS’s Project Entrepreneur, a new initiative to equip women founders with the tools and advice they need to thrive in the marketplace, I was stunned when Frankel implied that women should have sex with men in exchange for capital. I was offended when she expressed some kind of kinship with black women because she’s “loud.” And I was taken aback when she advised those of us in the room to get business advice to hire a white man as the face of our companies.
The session was not recorded, but it caused a firestorm both in New York City, where the event took place, and on social media.
Another female founder of color, Naomi Hirabayashi of Shine Text, was just as disturbed given this response. Many of the women of color in the audience turned their heads in shock. Some took to the mic, prepared to address the inflammatory remarks. While Frankel’s flawed advice comes with unfortunate truths regarding access to funding- white men do get the lion’s share of venture capital funding while black women founders don’t seem to even register on the radar. This phenomenon was most recently covered in Digital Undivided’s #ProjectDiane report; it’s clear tech has a long way to go when it comes to supporting black women founders. Armed with this knowledge, I weighed the pros and cons of responding to Frankel after I saw eye rolling, dismissive stares, and “Here she goes!” reactions from other women in the room but. Something needed to be said. Not even when the wrong-headedness was called to her attention, Frankel didn’t back down.
Nothing. No apology. No acknowledgement of an ignorant reply. Just a comment from a moderator about “breaking up a fight” and removing the mic from our hands. Naomi and I stood there shaking our heads. We stood up to defend female founders of color. She stood up as an ally aware of bias and ignorance in tech. We came together respectfully and left disappointed.
[From The Huffington Post via Jezebel]
Project Entrepreneur has since apologized while Bethenny has tweeted some nonsense about color not mattering. You know that means she said all these obnoxious things.
I don't care if ur woman,man, black,white,hispanic,green or purple.In biz & life be better than everyone else.Don't complain.Don't explain.
— Bethenny Frankel (@Bethenny) April 13, 2016
Here are some tweets about this speech:
(4) For @Bethenny to insist that a young, Black female founder "Find a white guy" to rep her biz is a racial microaggression #PEIntensive16
— Mary Pryor (@msmarypryor) April 11, 2016
To the brave black woman who asked what to do when ppl tell her to get a white man as the face of her org,Im so sorry for @Bethenny's answer
— Marah Lidey (@marahml) April 9, 2016
Convo w/ @bethenny: should u do whatever it takes 2 succeed like hiring a white male spokesperson as a minority entrepreneur? #PEIntensive16
— Ellen Choi (@LNchoi) April 9, 2016
1.Hi @msmarypryor TY for standing up+speaking your mind. The fact that you felt shut down is completely contrary to the goals of the weekend
— Project Entrepreneur (@pjtentrepreneur) April 11, 2016
We apologize to you and our guests.
— Project Entrepreneur (@pjtentrepreneur) April 11, 2016
Project Entrepreneur went one further and tweeted that Bethenny was wrong, essentially and that “We believe that every founder is enough on her own. We disagree with any sentiments to the contrary.” I hope this means that businesses and organizations will think twice before giving Bethenny a platform, but then I see the orange idiot who’s running for president and realize that there are a lot of racists who are being given platforms lately.
Update: Bethenny has denied saying this despite the many eyewitness accounts and she has gone on to block several people on Twitter insisting she said it.
Absolutely disgusting. She needs to crawl back into whatever troll-hole she crawled out of.
I am not a Bethanny fan, but can we be honest, in some cases she is right. There are people that do that because they feel the white guy will be able to relate better with the other white investors and the investors might feel more comfortable with a white guy.
Is it right? Absolutely not. Does it happen? Absolutely yes! Is the tide changing? YES She probably mentioned it based on some scenarios she has seen. I feel like we are piling on to her at this point.
Regardless of whether she’s right or not about white men receiving most of the funding, a forum in which business women are gathered to empower and inspire each other is absolutely NOT the place to highlight this sad reality.
Bethanny could have used this opportunity to encourage strong-minded, acute, and perseverant business women to refuse to pander to the status quo. Instead, she basically told all of them that in order to get ahead they need to eat shit. That’s incredibly disrespectful to all the attendees and it’s demonstrative of someone who doesn’t think very highly of the women in the audience.
Doesn’t she get that you don’t change things by perpetuating an existing problem?
Sorry but no matter how you spin this, it’s still completely unacceptable and utterly unprofessional on every level.
And what would those white-favoring investors think when they find out that people of color are the ones actually running and heading the company? Any well-informed investor would do some research on the business, wouldn’t they? Does this mean that non-white companies should have to give over some percentage of and power over their businesses to white figureheads?
What kind of retro culture is this when people of color should have to feel that they need to give whites some kind of tax and power in order to keep a business running? Like paying protection money to the White Mafia? Really? Should we keep contributing to racism and racial egotism and feeding it forever just to appease racists who refuse to evolve?
No. That’s not what that conference was about. It was to offer some advice as a business owner not to tell individuals with far more experience with racism than her how to give up and let a white man win for them. There’s no excuse for it.
Piling it up on her is rightful. She’s dense, simple, ignorant and a dumb sh!t. If we don’t mention how insensitive she’s being, how can she learn? By her telling WOC to work in the shadows, she’s setting them back. By responding to the backlash by pulling the whole “idc if you’re black/white/green/purple”card just shows that this isn’t teaching her anything…but at the very least she should be dragged in the media, because Jesus Christ, she’s an a$$hole…
Couldn’t agree with you more, Cynthia…. As an Entrepreneur for many, many years, she only spoke the truth. Sometimes, that stings.
@ Goo
She only spoke the truth about how racists think, but she shouldn’t be promoting this as the way to do business and continue the status quo the racists want to be perpetuated forever and tell people of color to follow the racist playbook.
Yea ugh. Just insulting on so many levels
This is in reply to Kitten ” Bethanny could have used this opportunity to encourage strong-minded, acute, and perseverant business women to refuse to pander to the status quo.”
I think sometimes we get upset when people tell the truth.
She was asked a question and she answered truthfully.
I own a business, and is all nice and well to try and change the “Status quo” but you cannot make a change if your business is not surviving to the next step.
You cannot make a change if you are not in the system.
You cannot make a change if you don’t have money or your family is hungry.
If as a black woman you are not getting the face time with investors, or you keep getting the facetime and they are rejecting you, and you have tried everything there is. Then by all means hire a white man and go to the next meeting, is called REALITY, and Practicality.
Once you are in the system, start changing it for other black women. Perfect example, you can be like Azelia Banks yelling from the sidelines racism and whatever, and people think you are crazy. Or you can be like Beyonce, get in the system conquer it , then drop formation and cause all this conversation.
What she said is Reality.
So the only way to change the system is to submit to the system, further and encourage the system, and then while supporting the system attempt to fix it from the inside.
Brilliant. Thanks for your input. We just found the cure for racism and discrimination guys. It was hiding behind a benevolent white guy’s face all along. Hurrah.
@Cynthia-On please. I’ve worked in corporate America for 18 years and I know how “the system” works. I also know that I did not get to where I am by being submissive and meekly obedient. On that note, I cannot think of one woman in the industry I work in who achieved success by letting some old white dude take the reigns.
Reality is very different from idealism. Especially when you need to feed your kids and your biz is on the line. ” You cannot save the world, if your mortgage is not paid”
@The Eternal Side-Eye if you read my comment carefully, that is not what I said. And while we are at it let us not lump other things into it.
Your business is on the line and you have tried everything, you know you have a good product, you see your white peers getting funding. You can tell is racism that is affecting the funding. What do you do? Hire a white man as your front person, or go to the media and scream racism, make a change, am been discriminated against. …….
Please let us be realistic, everything is not black and white. After you go to the media screaming let us see where you will get funding from? You need money to make any kind of change ( am referring specifically to this situation, where it counts – opening doors for other black biz owners) .
@Cynthia-There’s so many presumptions in your hypothetical that it makes it almost impossible to discuss.
You’re making it seem like women can never get funding when the study referenced here talks solely about the tech industry being unfriendly to black women. Well the tech industry has been notoriously unfriendly to anyone who isn’t a white male for decades now, yet that hasn’t stopped Marissa Mayer from becoming the CEO of Yahoo. How did she persevere to achieve a position that many white dudes would kill for?
HINT: She didn’t get to where she is by letting every man above or beside her take the corner office.
You call it “idealism” but I call it “personal experience”. I have spoken many times around here about how my boss is a mean old prick who makes all of our lives miserable. But I’ve also been quick to point out that going up against him has made me a stronger person, a better person really. If I hadn’t stuck up for myself when he tried to steamroll me or take advantage of my work ethic then I would not be making a comfortable six-figures nor would I have my title or respect from my peers. That doesn’t mean that I don’t see the infuriating reality that this is most certainly a man’s world. It just means that I refuse to kowtow to that, that I won’t let men dictate the path of my career.
I enjoy the respectful debate and I don’t disagree with the inherent reality of some of the situations you describe, I just disagree with how you think women should behave in those situations.
I don’t think women get ahead by letting men be the face of anything, really. When you do that, all you’re actually doing is handing over the accolades, the public interface, and the position to a man, when it deserves to go to the woman who rightfully earned it.
Good grief. She was at a conference aimed at empowering women entrepeneurs and told them to find a white guy as the face of their company AND IMPLIED THAT THEY SHOULD HAVE SEX IN EXCHANGE FOR FUNDING. She got up in front of all of those women who are they to collaborate and be inspired, and told them to settle for whatever the system gives them. Bethenny was paid to be there, these women paid for tickets, and this was what she got up and said? She should be ashamed of herself.
How CONVENIENT that there’s no video. In any other situation people have their phone in their HAND for gods sake, they’re constantly texting, taking selfies, and holding it like a blankie.
Yet somehow no one captured these words.
I’m sure she said something cynical meant to get attention but maybe not the way it’s being touted here.
You’re surprised that at a private business conference people weren’t texting or taking selfies?
It’s SO CONVENIENT when people do normal things and not simply record every incident for the posterity of the skeptical anonymous on the internet right?
I don’t go to conferences and record them on my cellphone. I respectfully put my phone away and pay attention like a normal person.
Somehow everytime I hear abut this woman I think that she and Kelly Rutherford would get along very, very well.
Two horrible woman who need to fall of the face of the earth.
I feel like any time someone uses ridiculous descriptions when listing minorities…ie ” I don’t care if you’re black, Latino, purple, yellow”…they’re going to say something offending or racist. It’s the new “I’m friends with a back guy so I’m not racist”.
I completely agree. I actually cringe when someone heads in the “orange, purple…. blah, blah, blah” direction.
I have long thought this woman was awful. I just didn’t realize how awful.
Yeah they always do, oh they’re going to start listing colors to make it seem they’re not racist. Coool! I knew that dumb show they’re on was st-pid I just didn’t know how much till this woman started talking.
That’s a pet peeve of mine when people say,”I don’t see color you can be Black,White,Orange,Chartreuse,Aubergine….” GMAB
I legit thought I was being sensitive because I was thinking the exact same thing. it demeans people of colour when people do that, it lumps up the importance of their skin colour to a box of facking crayons.
*eye-roll*
This is so true. Once people start listing colors like green, purple, blue… you know they either said something dumb and probably racist, or they are about to.
It’s a signal that someone has totally lost touch with reality and doesn’t understand the depth of the problems some ethnicities struggle with. Don’t tell me how you love all purple people when they don’t exist. Don’t talk about respecting red people when they’re not on tv being choked to death. Don’t mention finding peace in us all being equal even if we’re green when green people aren’t constantly being shot unarmed by police.
It’s basically a signal you’re about to hear a well-meaning idiot speak.
Yes. It’s a horrible deflection and most definitely signals ignorance.
@the eternal side eye Cynthia’s comment above was actually the cure for cancer (just kidding, please don’t take offense if you have it).
@cynthia for your comment above about how “white men will feel more comfortable”. How is that going to help anyone, you go on to say “change the system from the inside” but how can you do that if they are only “comfortable” with white men and that’s all you surround them by so they won’t be able to adjust to anyone else. (I can’t believe I’m writing this). Bethany is not right, you know that saying about insanity and how one keeps doing the same thing but expecting different results, yeah that can’t happen if we don’t acknowledge and actually do something.
If we want to make the world a better place we need to acknowledge and fix what’s wrong not continue the process, but expect a difference.
Yes Bethanny, please tell us about all the purple people you know. Idiot!
No, Lex, you interpret it as racists…. There is a huge difference.
–
Side-Eye, she is far from an idiot.
This makes me angry, of course, but it also makes me really sad. Those women went to this seminar for advice and input into growing their businesses, and were told, by another woman, to hire a white man as the face of their company. How insulting, demoralizing and disheartening, on every level. It just sickens me.
If women are going to look to Bethenny Frankel (or any Kardashian for that matter) for business tips, they’re going to get the exact advice they deserve. No sympathy.
–TheRealPinky
Well, they went to a seminar called Project Entrepreneur. They may not have known she was part of the program or known much about her.
Really tho?
Contrary to the awful dispositions of the people listed, those women are making bank through their various business ventures; is it so surprising that women entrepreneurs, especially those just starting out, would go to a seminar where other women have established their own businesses?
They didn’t deserve the answers they got–it may not be surprising given the source, however, I’m glad people put her ass on blast.
Maybe they didn’t know anything about her? TBH, I don’t know anything about her beyond the small excerpts that I read here. I certainly never knew she was a racist.
On another note, her face continues to confuse me.
No, it doesn’t just work that way. It’s not about boycotting Bethanny or Kim Kardashian and frankly in the business world no one has time for that. It’s already hard as hell to be a business owner and being a woman just makes it harder. Most of these conferences have multiple speakers and topics and you can dislike someone personally but still want to take every advantage to enrich your business.
Tbh, I didn’t realize the woman was such a racist till recent articles so I’d probably have been at that conference too.
Of all the horrible things this woman has done or said, this is by far is the worst.
Her amazing advice amounts to – Want to be a successful female business entrepreneur? Let racism and sexism work for you! Prostitute yourself for funds and hide behind a white man…and then watch your business grow! You will have to check your pride at the door but hey, getting the $ check is what matters most… Amiright my sisters?!!! See I’m loud like you!
This woman has no shame. And worst thing is, she’s has no true awareness. F*ck U Frankel.
Yeah, of all the ridiculous racist things I’ve seen or heard from celebrities all year this was honestly the most heartbreaking.
Those women are trying their hardest to succeed in a field that is already so difficult and this bobble-headed idiot tells them to just give up and let racism and sexism succeed. She can go to hell.
Those women paid to attend. And Project Entrepreneur hired a keynote speaker who gave advice utterly to the contrary of their entire stated mission. I hope they’re mortified, because they hired for celebrity, not substance, and Bethenny’s speaking fee couldn’t have been cheap.
Wether they knew or not about Bethany being there, I still think it’s weird that they would get a celebrity speaker, that’s what annoys me, there are plenty of successful people who have businesses who aren’t famous, but no they got “advice” from a Hollywood person.
Do any of you know if there were men speakers, I know this was a seminar thing for women, but it’s really about business at the end of the day and being successful, and any good advice about business despite it being a man or woman should be taken. I don’t mean like the way Bethany was saying, but I mean especially with the way men have it “easier” in the work place, their advice seems like it would help a lot.
Girl, smfh.
Eat a bag of d*cks.
It can only be orange, purple or white d*cks, any other color might offend her royal highness reality star Gargamel I mean Frankel.
LOL!
Word on the street is she is only into magenta. Magenta people are the best people.
Bethany- f*ck you. F*ck you for real. I don’t need to hide my blackness to succeed.
No one has asked you to do so…
Bethany did…..
She really needs to go away for awhile. A few million years would be long enough
Not really shocked. She has proven that she a racist asshole already.
Racists? Seriously! That chip must get very heavy…
I didn’t think this woman could get any more disgusting than I already thought she was. Wrong.
Way to go Bravo. You’ve got this shrieking racist and the felon from NJ as the stars of your network. Aim high!!
She’s always been a racist piece of garbage. People just always brushed it under the table or didn’t want to acknowledge it.
You know who is also a racist dirtbag? That other piece of trash from the RHONY, Ramona.
Agreed. I’m unsure who sucks more
Oh, God, Ramona. She drowns her two functioning brain cells in wine. Can’t stand her, either.
And yet- over the KMart issue a lot of people were giving her the benefit of the doubt. I found that laughable at the time – and it’s pretty clear now what had gone down.
I haven’t watched a Real Housewives show in years, but I remember her and Ramona were pretty tight after the fallout with Jill. Birds of a feather.
Does she have a white male as the spokesperson or face of Skinny girl?
She doesn’t need one because she isn’t a minority woman.As for sleeping with a man to get capital…That was another piece of advice from her.But she was joking ,of course.
I’m a white woman and am horrified by Bethenny’s comments. I shouldn’t have to apologize for my race but lately I need to. How embarrassing, what a disgusting piece of trash.
well, Bella Hadid had some tweets dug up on her saying racist things. Back in 2012, she called a a black twitter user the N word. She also made a distasteful “chicken” joke.
Though she was really young, and she may not feel that way now.
I feel that a lot of these celebs who were caught saying racist things should just apologize.
Or not say it at all.
She was 15 and apparently the person she called ni##a was not Black.Unfortunately a lot of teens of every race use that term now.I just heard an Hispanic teenager address his White friend as a ni##a yesterday at the grocery store.He said ,”What’s up my Ni##a”,then they shook hands and hugged.
The” I stole a black man’s chicken” tweet is up in the air for me,questionable.I need more context it sounds like a stupid tweet but I don’t know if it’s racist.
One of my parents is from the Deep South and I spent plenty of time with my relatives. Some still have rebel flags. Even writing that makes me feel shame.
But from hearing some of them talk I absolutely know that is racist. Not one doubt. There is no context where that would be ok.
Sorry but I side-eye ANY white person who uses the n-word casually and easily. I DGAF who they’re referring to.
I can’t even read that word silently without feeling gross.
The two situations are hardly comparable.
TBH, I totally agree with you. I just read a article about the tweets on another website, right before I went on celebitchy. So the situation was fresh on my mind. I feel sort of gross for putting it out there.
Im 21 and Im black. Im offended by what Bella wrote as well as BF. Im not trying to call Bella racist. I didn’t mean to come off judgy about a tweet someone 14 or 15 wrote.
It just popped into my head.
You didn’t come off judgey. She’s the a-hole who said it and it is wrong on her part. She might be horrified by it now but in that moment she was a bigot.
What is equally upsetting is out of all the successful women she was chosen as a speaker. Project Entrepreneur got just what they wanted – a headline grabbing celebrity rather than proven business leader. Stop hiring this piece of trash, stop giving her a platform to spread her stupidity and stop thinking she has anything useful to share with women in the workplace. Now, if you want a course in famewhoring and general buffoonery, make this woman your keynote speaker.
ITA completely. How could they not foresee this sh*t happening?
This woman was on a reality tv show that is insulting to all women, she’s clearly unprofessional, and she’s a proven wild card. They could have had Sheila Johnson, Zhang Xin, Judy Faulkner or any number of billionaire women who have rightfully earned their success through hard work, but they chose this moron. SMDH.
Racist or not she’s a proven business leader. She sold skinny girl for over $100 million. She knows business.
Exactly. There’s something to he said about cult of personalities in business. I attended a conference a few years ago and I always vividly remember the man speaking saying how there’s many roads to a successful business and if we wanted to we could certainly go the Pro-Activ route.
For better or worse there’s a strong market for celebrity endorsements or spokespeople and the more famous the person the better. That being said I have a feeling a lot of people not clued into Real Housewives didn’t realize just what a douchebag she was.
She knows how to promote, which is not the same as professional business acumen.
As the article and those who were at the conference states, her business tips were:
1) Sleep with men to get capital
2) Hire White men if you want investor money
Is this proof of that she’s a ‘proven business leader’ or that ‘she knows business?’
And her racial observation was that if you’re loud, then you’re just like Blacks.
She built her brand by getting on a Reality Show and a lot of luck. If she had actual business knowledge or expertise this would have been the area to showcase. Instead, she showed how she really got ahead.
Disagree too. She knew how to market and as Bridget said, she got very lucky from her exposure and obviously her body.
Yep, what Bridget and Magnolia said. Don’t be fooled.
She really defines “ugly on the inside”.
Very much so.
I read something about this last night, and I think Bethenny was flat out denying this happened. So not only was she racist, sexist, and rude, but she called these women who complained liars.
I’m disgusting this group hired her to begin with, when there are so many other successful women who don’t have to rely on a trashy reality show for fame.
Without video or recording, it’s hard to get a sense of the tone of the exchange. I can see Bethenny steamrolling over the sensibilities of others in her pursuit of snarky quips or to prop up of her self-image as a tell-like-it-is leader though.
Remember her awful tweets about KMART workers and Hispanic women? And she is a huge Trump supporter, and Trump is a Racist, not a Realist, in my opinion. Bethenny Coulter is a tart. Nothing more. She has a loud mouth and she grates on people. I don’t doubt that some of her luck in business is because she slept with certain men. Bethenny Coulter needs to go away now.
She’s a monster, and she’s probably someone Trump would pick for his VP.
She is a loud mouth but she is also a woman so there is no way Trump would pick her for VP.
Palin 2.0? IS there a flaming orange horseman in the apocalypse? Is he also heralded by a shrill, bobble-headed harpy? End times, y’all.
May she come back in her next life as the wart on the back of a toad, amen.
She doesn’t have to go through the trouble of coming back in her next life. She can just go straight to hell.
Yesterday I posted that I found her sickening the moment I heard her “thoughts”. And she just keeps getting more repulsive. Has she endorsed Trump yet? I wish I could say I am shocked at her comments, but sadly,I can’t. I’m just appalled.
Great article this week in NYT about the co-opted and bastardized women’s empowerment movement and the profit motive behind same. My point? Can’t stand BF and I can’t stand” you pay for ” events geared toward any one demographic purporting to support them. Chances are you are being exploited and/or patronized.
Would you happen to have a link? That sounds like a good read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/how-empowerment-became-something-for-women-to-buy.html?smid=nytnow-share&smprod=nytnow&_r=0
I am going to look at that because that very issue has been on my mind. I have felt manipulated sometimes.
You go girl.
Stop giving this woman money. I’ve never spent a dime of mine on her “business.”
Why would anyone listen to this terrible woman, and why would anyone buy something she was selling. Maybe I’m just too old and midwestern to understand…..
she’s en route to be a FAUX NEWS commentator……. just like elizabeth hasslebeck …. i just
get to a certain level of visibility and then sprout off passive agreesive or direct racist ishhhhh……
No. No. No. Oh God it’ll happen soon won’t it? Ugh. Of course Bethenny is a brunette so…breathes sigh of relief.
She’s so disgusting.
This reminds me of that argument she had with Omarosa. She made some great points that Bethany just shot down and completely ignored. She has a habit of doing this when people of color speak on their experience.
She is on the fast track to become Ann Coulter 2.0
Bethenny’s lame defense that it’s not on video so it must not have happened really pisses me off. This was a professional function. People don’t just hold up their phones and record speakers, it would be rude and gauche, the only way they’d have video is if the conference itself chose to record it.
Right, a bunch of women conspired to attend this conference just so they could frame Bethanny. It’s very convenient for her that it WASN’T recorded, I’ll say that much.
Can she go away now? Why is she a thing?
I for one would like to thank Frankel for the schaudenfraude. I had a crap day today but at least I am not a massive racist oxygen thief.
Props to the ladies that called her out as well!
I think this is straight up racism off the cuff, the “political correctness” argument that people like her and Trump bring up in 2016 is total fluff. She said what she said and I think that was an honest statement from her. She is only embarrassed because she got caught.
I don’t even know anything about this woman, but she seems like one of those racists who is too stupid to realize she is racist. Why take advice from this woman?
And she wonders why no man wants to commit to her…..
“I don’t care if ur black,white,hispanic,green or purple…”
Wtf, hispanic is not a color! You are talking about a group of people which extends from Mexico to Argentina and adding Spain. We are not all the same. We come in all colors! Why is it so difficult to understand?!
This woman is gross. Sadly I’m sure she is two comments away from some version of Mexican are rapists or something like that.
So she denies it and said she listened to the tape. If there is a tape, why not ask the organization release it? That’s the easiest way to confirm it was or was not said, or maybe an audience member posted some audio she listened to. I’m not sure.
A poster on Jezebel said she didn’t remember her saying the white man as a face of your company remark. That that was put to Bethenny in the form of a question in relaying it as advice given to one of the audience members by an advisor.
“Not that it will matter, but I was there and she didn’t say it. I’m also a female minority founder. And never in a million years did I think I’d be defending Bethenny Frankel on Jezebel. An audience member (Mary?) asked what Bethenny thought about the advice that an advisor gave her that she get a white guy to rep her company. Bethenny said at some point that women don’t need men, they need to be better than men, but I don’t remember if it was in response to this question. Her response to this particular question was not memorable. The general feeling in the room when this question was asked was – of course that’s not good advice to give a female minority founder, that’s terrible! I am so confused about how that question turned into Bethenny supporting this idea and was also confused when I read the related blog post. Bethenny did say some controversial things during her talk (“no doesn’t mean no, it means not right now”), but she is telling the truth when she says she didn’t say this.”
In my opinion, we can blame Andy Cohen for this woman. She and he both need to crawl under the rock from which they came.