Kathy Hilton Sparks ‘Tough’ Race Conversation By Saying She Doesn’t ‘See Color’

Garcelle Beauvais was put in the position of educator for the second time this season on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” after Kathy Hilton sparked a conversation about race.

As the women, sans Erika, all sat down for dinner at Kyle Richards’ La Quinta home, Kathy brought up Sutton Stracke and Crystal Kung Minkoff’s fight from earlier this season, in which Sutton said she “didn’t see color.”

While that may have been a PC thing to say back in the day, it’s not anymore. Today, not “seeing color” means ignoring the lived experiences of other cultures and failing to acknowledge and/or address systemic racism. Clearly, Hilton didn’t get that memo even after Sutton and Crystal’s feud about it, because she then agreed with the sentiment.

“You know, Michael Jackson and I grew up together and Michael said to me, ‘Kathy, I don’t see color,’” she shared with the group. “I said, ‘Well, neither do we.”

Beauvais pushed back.

“I know you can see me as a woman, you can see me as a mother, you can see me as a friend, but if you don’t see color, then you don’t see me,” she explained. In a confessional, Garcelle knew that Kathy simply meant she loved everyone, but that wasn’t enough anymore. “Now I need you to see color, I’m still a Black woman at the end of the day. That shows up before my intelligence, before my fashion, that shows up before anything when I walk in a room and I need you to see that,” she added.

As Kyle also tried to say Kathy meant she saw everyone as equal in her own eyes, Garcelle added, “But we’re not. We’re not equal.” Kathy agreed that was an important conversation to have, as Garcelle said, “We are not treated equally as you are. We should be. Absolutely, we should be, but we’re not.”

She then asked if any of them ever had to warn their kids about being pulled over by police, a conversation every Black parent has with their children. They all shook their heads no. Garcelle said she worried about her older son Oliver getting pulled over, getting emotional as she said, “because in an instant, he’s not my son, he’s just a Black man and this world doesn’t see the value of Black men.”

Crystal chimed in saying she grew up in a household where she was always told to protect herself because people would attack her for being Asian, before recalling how she was made fun of as a child. Though she said her parents told her to keep quiet and disengage with any racist taunts, that, in her mind, was “why having open conversations about race is important”

The direction of the discussion went off in a new direction as Hilton then said she didn’t want to ever have to “sit down with a little 4-year-old” and “point things out to them with these innocent minds” about race, something else that Garcelle said was a privilege she doesn’t have.

“I agree, you shouldn’t have to go to a 4-year-old and say you need to be … it’s a lot for a 4-year-old, I get it,” Garcelle replied, “but I’m going to say that to a 4-year-old who’s Black.”

“It’s a privilege not to have that conversation,” she added in a confessional. “I wish I had that choice and I don’t.”

The conversation took one final turn as Dorit started talking about how she’s told her children that a person’s skin color doesn’t matter and the many “people that work for us that are very multicultural.”

“I’ve had a lot of Black and Hispanic and Filipino … and my kids are used to it, some of the people they’ve loved most in this world are dark-skinned,” she said, as Kyle and Garcelle shot each other surprised glances.

“Are the brown people only help at your house?” Garcelle asked, before Dorit said that, no, that wasn’t the case — and added, “In fact, my mother’s best friend is Black.” After Garcelle said she simply wants to “clarify” that, a frustrated Dorit added in a confessional, “It’s not only brown people that work in my house. Garcelle has been to my house, so she knows that.”

Having already been at the center of a similar conversation before, Sutton wisely sat this one out.

While they all agreed it was a “tough” and “heavy” discussion to have, hopefully it’s one they all learned something from.

“The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” airs Wednesdays on Bravo.