Jenice Armstrong: The worst of trash TV

THE EX-WIFE of basketball star Shaquille O'Neal had the nerve to write an open letter to CNN complaining about the behavior of black female reality-TV stars.

Huh?

Last I checked, Shaunie O'Neal was the executive producer and a co-star on "Basketball Wives," that train wreck of a reality-TV show in which glitzy women brag about being former wives, girlfriends and, even worse, jump-offs of professional athletes.

I read O'Neal's letter several times because I couldn't believe my eyes.

But there in black and white was O'Neal looking down at "this new generation of reality TV."

"It seems to be more about the drama and less about the story line," she wrote.

As if her program is any different.

O'Neal really could have named her VH1 show, "When Basketball Wives Attack," because the last time I tuned in, a female cast mate, Tami Roman, the ex-wife of NBA player Kenny Anderson, did attack another female cast mate, Evelyn Lozada, after she confessed to messing around with Roman's former husband.

"You f----- my man when I was married to him?" Roman screams.

Lozada responds, "You were a non-mother------ factor, b----."

The women, who were outside a high-end restaurant, had to be pulled apart and physically restrained from assaulting each other.

Nice, huh?

I'm no TV snob, but this is trash TV at its worst, not just because of the low-class antics but because of the way it pretends to glamorize women whose biggest claim to fame is having boinked a professional athlete.

Earth to Basketball Wives: Wearing sky-high designer shoes and having sex with a baller doesn't make you fabulous.

I'm so over turning on TV and seeing black women rolling their eyes, cursing and acting like hooligans, which is one reason I had to bow out of watching last season's "Celebrity Apprentice," which pitted Star Jones, formerly of "The View," against NeNe Leakes, a former stripper turned reality-TV star.

TV viewers love a girl fight, and there's always a NeNe ("The Real Housewives of Atlanta") ready and willing to jump up and "get somebody told," as the saying goes.

She doesn't exist in a vacuum. I know plenty of angry black women like Leakes who get off on being seen as the tough girl.

It's an age-old stereotype perpetuated, in part, by TV shows such as "Basketball Wives," "Bad Girls" and "Real Housewives of Atlanta."

It will never disappear, because a whole lot of black women have bought into it and make a point of keeping it alive every chance they get.

Reality TV doesn't discriminate, though.

Practically everyone winds up looking bad on the shows I watch. You can't go on a show called "Bridezillas" and come off looking like a decent human being.

The last time I tuned in to "The Real Housewives of New Jersey," cast members were brawling at an elaborate christening.

Then there was the time I tuned in to "The Real Housewives of Orange County" in time to watch one cast mate throw a drink at another.

But the big difference with the white women who make complete fools of themselves on reality TV is that there's balance.

The women on "Housewives of Orange County" do a really good job of degrading themselves and coming off as shallow and materialistic, but there are hundreds of white actresses and TV personalities in various roles on other shows behaving in wholesome ways and behaving in a wide range of different, positive roles. So the negativity pretty much is offset by everything else you see on TV.

Although things have improved, the same just isn't true for black women, which O'Neal acknowledges in her letter:

"I'm not saying we have to create shows that only paint a pretty picture about who we are, but there should be a balance and most of all some integrity to the shows we create."

Nice words, Shaunie, but instead of writing to CNN, you should be flipping the script, as they say, at "Basketball Wives."

Send email to heyjen@phillynews.com. My blog: www.philly.com/HeyJen.