Kesha Nichols became the most empathetic character on this season of “Basketball Wives” after we watched her get verbally attacked by Tami on multiple occasions. Some didn’t expect to see the newcomer on the reunion episode due to her rough season and in a chat for VH1′s blog she told the interviewer had she not been contractually bound to attend she definitely would have skipped it, much like she plans on doing for season 5 of the show. Here’s what she told the site:
“Honestly, this whole season I’ve been waiting and hoping that something positive would come, and I don’t think they’ve really shown anything positive about me, about black women, about women in general. And I honestly didn’t realize that I was being bullied when I was in Tahiti, I knew that Tami was being mean to me and that nobody was sticking up for me, but when I watched the episode, that’s when I realized I was being bullied, and I’ve been lucky, never in my life have I experienced that, so maybe the reason why I was on the show was to see what it was like to be bullied and be a spokesperson for people that are being bullied.
“I had a conversation with Royce about doing another season if the show comes back, and I don’t know why I would. I’m never going to film with Kenya again, I’m never going to film with Tami again, so what purpose would I serve? I’m not about this life, so why would they want me to come back? And Royce was like, you have so many fans and people who look up to you, if you don’t come back it might look like you’re running. No, it looks like I’m removing myself from a negative situation. That’s all you can do when you’re being bullied by someone. Remove yourself from the situation. Because, clearly, not saying anything doesn’t work. This has definitely been a learning experience for me and I’m not going to let it break my spirit. I can make something positive out of anything, but it’s definitely been very hard.”
Kesha said she has it in her to snap but only when it’s something she cares about, and like she said on the show, there was nothing she could say about Tami that would make her look worse than she made her own self look. That goes for the other women on the show too.
“I’m not going to fight a woman who’s fighting a battle with herself, it has nothing to do with me,” Kesha said. “And I wrote about this in my blog, but the rest of the women who didn’t step in are secondary adult bullies. I’m allowed to have an opinion about somebody going off on me, and she was mad at me because I said she was acting a fool, and what was she doing? Acting a fool again. What’s she going to do today? Beat me up because I called her a bully?
“I keep saying how lucky I am that I have a support group around me and family and friends who love me all around, but some people who don’t have that might go hurt themselves. What I’ve endured could take me to a really dark place and I haven’t let that happen, but there are people who don’t have the tools to help themselves out of situations like this.”
Good for Kesha for lining up her exit strategy. I can’t imagine who would sign on to be a part of next season.
Brande Victorian is a blogger and culture writer in New York City. Follower her on Twitter at @be_vic.
