How racism accusations are impacting 'Real Housewives'

Feedback: How racism accusations are affecting ‘Real Housewives’ franchise

Six cast members from "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" talk with Andy Cohen.

March 11, 2022 7 AM PT

‘Emotional athletics’

Regarding Meredith Blake’s “The Crisis Central to ‘Real Housewives’ ” [March 7]: Episodes of the franchise seem like the equivalent of emotional athletics. There are tongue lashings, loud outbursts of indignation, trash talking and all sorts of backstabbing commentary.

After watching one of these shows, I can say that racism isn’t the biggest problem, but stupidity certainly is.

The trials and tribulations of the women on these shows remind me of the current negotiations between the wealthy Major League Baseball owners and the millionaire players.

Mark Walker
Yorba Linda

Comfort for the bereaved

After reading Kristen Martin’s book review [“When Death Comes Calling ...,” March 8] about “New Animal” by Ella Baxter, I feel it my duty to mention that during my 46-year career in the funeral industry, all the licensed embalmers and cosmeticians I knew were professional, caring and loving [in the] way they created a comfort for the families they served.

Those who choose a career in the funeral industry, regardless of religious affiliation, if any, are a dedicated group of people who share their abilities, their devotion to and in many cases their artistic values to make a meaningful funeral for the deceased person to whom they have been entrusted.

Sometimes these people go unthanked, but that doesn’t stop their dedication and sensitivity in doing what they so unselfishly accomplish.

Morley J. Helfand
Arcadia

The artist, not the art

I particularly liked that in his review of “The Andy Warhol Diaries” [“A Meaningful Portrait of Love,” March 7], art critic Christoper Knight emphasized that the documentary maintains focus on Warhol’s personal life/relationships rather than his art.

This was enough to get me to watch it: “Culture, like nature, abhors a vacuum, though, which in Warhol’s blankness has filled up with market-oriented enthusiasms. By contrast, the documentary considers him within serious American social history.”

I wouldn’t want to if the focus were on his career as an artist, about which we already know the in and outs.

John Snyder
Newbury Park

The language of critics

In his review of the movie “After Yang” [“Robot Story on a Human Level,” March 4], Justin Chang wrote: “At various points Jake keeps in touch with his wife, Kyra (Jodie Turner-Smith), using a system of gadget-less remote communication that Kogonada represents by having the actors speak directly into his camera — a technique that readily (but sparingly) evokes the work of the late Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu.”

What was that about? How about writing reviews for people who might want to see movies, rather than for other critics.

Judith Bass
Altadena

On the brink of World War III

I agree with television critic Lorraine Ali [“Racist Double Standard in War Coverage,” March 3] that her fellow journalists are wrong to call the war in Ukraine “the most important in our lifetime.” However in focusing on the implicit slights to those who’ve endured recent wars in the Middle East, she ignores the greater slight to those who lived through World War II.

Plenty of them are still among us, but perhaps she considers them too old to matter. The current war is certainly the most important in this century, for reasons that have nothing to do with race but far more to do with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping standing side by side proclaiming a new world order.

We are on the brink of World War III, and if it comes, every race and country will suffer the consequences.

Kathleen Barreto
Culver City