Categories: Celebs

(Exclusive) Eboni K. Williams Talks Never ‘Quieting’ Her Blackness For New Law-Focused Talk Show

<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;eboni-k-williams-becomes-the-first-black-cast-member-to-join-the-real-housewives-of-new-york&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Eboni K&period; Williams <&sol;a><&sol;strong>is not a woman to be played with&period; The 39-year-old is a seasoned lawyer&comma; author&comma; and television host who has led shows like <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;revolt&period;tv&sol;show&sol;2019-10-09&sol;102451&sol;state-of-the-culture&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">State Of The Culture<&sol;a> <&sol;em>on REVOLT TV&comma; as well as <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;revolt&period;tv&sol;show&sol;2020-08-17&sol;102438&sol;revolt-black-news&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">REVOLT Black News<&sol;a><&sol;em>&period; Williams has also guest-hosted shows like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;exclusive-source-says-wendy-williams-doesnt-currently-have-an-invitation-to-join-the-view-as-a-guest-host-but-you-never-know-also-shares-that-wendy-has-received-multiple-offers&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener"><em>The View<&sol;em><&sol;a> and even broke barriers as the first Black cast member of <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;eboni-k-williams-becomes-the-first-black-cast-member-to-join-the-real-housewives-of-new-york&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">The Real Housewives of New York City<&sol;a>&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Today&comma; Williams continues to expand her footprint in the media world with her new talk show&comma; <em><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;deadline&period;com&sol;2022&sol;10&sol;thegrio-two-hour-news-block-eboni-k-williams-marc-lamont-hill-1235152424&sol;" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">TheGrio with Eboni K&period; Williams<&sol;a><&sol;em>&period; According to an exclusive press release&comma; the show focuses on &&num;8220&semi;law and order and how the justice system impacts the Black community&period;&&num;8221&semi; The show also offers &&num;8220&semi;a twist&comma;&&num;8221&semi; providing viewers with &&num;8220&semi;teachable moments&&num;8221&semi; and sharing valuable information about the judicial system and how to apply it in times of crisis&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"Ce6YD0zOmDW" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Williams sat down exclusively with <em>The Shade Room&&num;8217&semi;s <&sol;em>Senior Editor&comma; Jadriena Solomon&period; She explained how her new talk show will help Black Americans foster a deeper understanding of the judicial system&comma; how she maintains her confidence as a powerful Black woman&comma; and what topics viewers can expect to hear discussed on the show&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong> Jadriena Solomon&colon; <em>First and foremost&comma; congratulations on the launch of &OpenCurlyQuote;TheGrio with Eboni K&period; Williams&comma;&&num;8217&semi; your new show that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;highlights law and order and its meaning to the Black community&period;” On the show&comma; you’ve analyzed news-making cases and issues that directly impact our people while offering your insightful legal and cultural commentary&period; When you learned that the show would be moving forward&comma; I’m sure you felt excitement&comma; but did you also feel a sense of heaviness or reservation in knowing how large of responsibility you would have to educate your viewers in such unprecedented times like this&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Eboni K&period; Williams&colon;<&sol;strong> Not even close&period; This is why I do everything&period; This is why I wake up in the morning&period; In addition to hosting &&num;8216&semi;TheGrio with Eboni K&period; Williams&&num;8217&semi; — which I love doing every day at six o&&num;8217&semi;clock Eastern time — I just finished recording my audiobook&comma; titled &&num;8220&semi;<a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;Bet-Black-about-Being-America&sol;dp&sol;0306828642" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Bet on Black&colon; The Good News About Being Black in America<&sol;a>&period;&&num;8221&semi; We all have callings and it just so happens that mine&comma; due to my skillset&comma; education&comma; and position in this world&comma; is to be a curator of facts&comma; strategies&comma; and information&period; And if I can educate my people about things that make navigating this world and this country as a Black person easier&comma; then it&&num;8217&semi;s my privilege to get to do that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Jadriena Solomon&colon;<em> It’s extremely refreshing to see a news show for us centered around the law because so much of the time — because of the world we live in — we’re told to stay as far away from the law as possible&period; Therefore if we do end up in a legal situation&comma; we often don’t know what to do and don’t have the correct information to deal with the matter in the best way&period; How can we&comma; as a community&comma; begin reshaping our perception of the law or the judicial system&quest; <&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Eboni K&period; Williams&colon;<&sol;strong> I love this question&period; The first thing people need to do is download and subscribe to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;podcasts&period;apple&period;com&sol;us&sol;podcast&sol;holding-court-with-eboni-k-williams&sol;id1534027647" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"noopener">Holding Court with Eboni K&period; Williams<&sol;a>&period; The reason why why I created that podcast is to connect those dots because every Black person I know — if it&&num;8217&semi;s not you&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s your mama&comma; your daddy&comma; your sister&comma; or your brother — has intersected with the justice system&comma; probably the criminal justice system&period; Somebody in your family has been incarcerated&period; And because of that relationship and the history of the brutality of the legal system against Black Americans&comma; to this day&comma; we run away from it&period; We don&&num;8217&semi;t want to be near it&period; We don&&num;8217&semi;t want to intersect with it in any way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But that&&num;8217&semi;s exactly what they want us to do&period; They want us to stay away from the knowledge of the system so that we can always be victims of the system&period; So what I do with my show on TheGrio&comma; is give the nourishment we need to better navigate the judicial system&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m giving viewers the tools to understand the jargon of the criminal justice system&period; You don&&num;8217&semi;t know what a failure to appear means&quest; Listen to this&period; Do you have a warrant out on you&quest; You don&&num;8217&semi;t have to just go to jail with that warrant&period; You can get your charges put back on the docket&comma; go to court&comma; have your case heard&comma; and really save yourself a conviction&comma; time&comma; and money&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s just a taste of the information that our people will never get if we don&&num;8217&semi;t avail ourselves of this type of content&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Jadriena Solomon&colon; <em>What do you think it was about the law and the judicial system that attracted you to learn more about it and pursue it as a career&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Eboni K&period; Williams&colon; <&sol;strong>I&&num;8217&semi;m a first-generation college graduate&comma; and I take that responsibility seriously knowing that I get to avail myself of higher education in a way that my mother and previous generations didn&&num;8217&semi;t&period; I wanted to go to the top — I&&num;8217&semi;m just going to be straight up&period; It was important for me to pursue a career field that didn&&num;8217&semi;t expect to have people that look like us and did not expect to see Black women&period; So that when I walk in spaces&comma; from the time I was 23 years old to today&comma; you have to put that esquire on my name&period; You have to put respect on my name&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; as Black people&comma; and Black women&comma; in particular&comma; we are not presumed to be credible or intelligent or substantive or knowledgeable or powerful&comma; or authoritative&period; So being an attorney for me was about getting that part out on front street so that I can do the work to change that&period; The work of providing that opportunity for equality&comma; breaking down those systems of systemic oppression towards our people&comma; and making sure that this system can work in our favor instead of always working against us&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Jadriena Solomon&colon; <em>You are a strong Black woman who is absolutely out here doing your thing&period; You are fierce&period; But so often as Black women&comma; we are told that we need to — especially in career spaces — suppress that fierceness&comma; hold back that confidence&comma; and stray away from demanding respect&period; What advice would you give to women who are in positions of power but face this challenge&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div>&NewLine;<p><strong>Eboni K&period; Williams&colon;<&sol;strong>  That is exactly why I wrote this book&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Bet on Black&colon; The Good News About Being Black in America&period;&&num;8221&semi; Here&&num;8217&semi;s what it says on the back of the book&colon; The good news about being Black in America today is that we can place our experiences — our history — up front and center and let other people contend with their comfort or their discomfort with that choice&period; We don&&num;8217&semi;t have to succumb to subjections of inferiority&period; Those projections have nothing to do with who we actually are&period; Blackness has always been a first-class mainstream liberating experience&period; So we get to spread the good news &lbrack;and&rsqb; tell people who we actually are&comma; not who they think or want us to be&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>So that would be my advice&period; You know&comma; I like to say I&&num;8217&semi;ve entered a divorce of white comfort — I don&&num;8217&semi;t give a damn about it&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t quiet my blackness&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t tone it down&period; I turn it up&period; I have found&comma; in my lived experience&comma; that when you turn up the volume on everything that makes Black women and brown women the dopest — our confidence&comma; our swag&comma; our style&comma; our aesthetic&comma; our vernacular&comma; all the things that are uniquely ours — that&&num;8217&semi;s really when the best things happen&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s when I made the most money&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s when I closed on my first real estate acquisition&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s when I got talk show after TV show after upcoming syndicated show&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s when I got this amazing book deal&period; That is the manifestation of the blessing&period; So turn up the blackness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Jadriena Solomon&colon; <em>Tell us more about &OpenCurlyQuote;TheGrio with Eboni K&period; Williams&&num;8217&semi; for those who haven&&num;8217&semi;t tuned in yet and need to&period; What do they need to know&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<div>&NewLine;<p><strong>Eboni K&period; Williams&colon;<&sol;strong> When you watch &OpenCurlyQuote;TheGrio with Eboni K&period; Williams&comma;&&num;8217&semi; you&&num;8217&semi;re going to get the headlines you need to know&period; And then at the end of every episode — my favorite part of the show — I&&num;8217&semi;m interviewing guests like the specialists that deal with Russian laws so we can find out what&&num;8217&semi;s really going on with Brittney Griner&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m interviewing one of the Black men who bought the trademark to White Lives Matter to make sure that nobody of nefarious intent profits off of our pain&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>We also dive deep into these legal issues&period; So you can watch the episode and be aware of not only what&&num;8217&semi;s going on with Brittney Griner&comma; but where&&num;8217&semi;s she being held&period; What&&num;8217&semi;re the laws over there versus the laws over here&quest; And what do we need to do&comma; other than rally on social media&comma; to help bring our sister home&quest; We have the midterm elections and run-offs&period; And on December 6th&comma; Georgia&comma; we need you to go out and do it again&period; We have got to have our culture show up and save the Black political agenda&period; That is what it takes if we even want to try and hold Biden and this administration accountable for the promises&comma; reparations&comma; justice&comma; and policing act for brother George Floyd&period; So on the show&comma; I tell you what you need to know and also what you need to do — what the action steps look like to create a more economic&comma; politically equitable society for Black folk&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>&&num;8216&semi;TheGrio with Eboni K&period; Williams&&num;8217&semi; airs weeknights at 6 PM ET on demand via the TheGrio Streaming App and can also be found via Comcast&comma; Charter&sol;Spectrum&comma; Cox&comma; DISH&comma; Sling&comma; Verizon Fios&comma; DirecTV&comma; and DirecTV Stream&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine;<&sol;div>&NewLine; <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-wrap wpra-plugin-container" style&equals;"justify-content&colon; center&semi;&semi;"> <div class&equals;"wpra-reactions-container" data-ver&equals;"1&period;3&period;10" data-post&lowbar;id&equals;"102692" data-show&lowbar;count&equals;"true" data-enable&lowbar;share&equals;"onclick" data-behavior&equals;"regular" data-animation&equals;"true" data-share&lowbar;url&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;exclusive-eboni-k-williams-talks-never-quieting-her-blackness-for-new-law-focused-talk-show&sol;" data-secure&equals;"b58d235200"> <div class&equals;"wpra-call-to-action" style&equals;"color&colon; 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Jadriena Solomon

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