I don't know if it's Black Girl Magic or just black magic, but there is something bewitchingly dope about Omarosa Onee Manigault.
For one, she is highly-educated and a product of an HBCU experience. That's right: not only does Omarosa have a Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Central State University, but she also has a Masters <i>and</i> Ph.D. in Communications from Howard University.
<img src="http://madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/omarosa-feat.jpg" alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-782326" width="1068" height="600" />
Secondly, she's accomplished. In fact, Omarosa's resume includes a brief stint under Vice President Al Gore (along with three other jobs with the Clinton Administration), a job with <em><a href="https://www.accesshollywood.com/videos/omarosa-was-she-surprised-by-the-cosby-allegations/">Bill and Camille Cosby at the National Visionary Leadership Project</a></em> and a professorship at her H.U. alma mater.
Oh, and then there's the television career she built completely out of nowhere.
While most reality television stars have faded back into anonymity, Omarosa has managed to parlay her disastrous appearance on the first season of <i>Celebrity Apprentice</i> into a pretty impressive television career, spanning <a href="http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/reality-show-villain-omarosa-joins-the-trump-white-house/article/2610929">over 20 reality shows</a> in less than 13 years. According to published reports, this streak includes her upcoming appearance on TLC's Say<a href="http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a8587259/omarosa-is-going-to-start-some-drama-on-say-yes-to-the-dress-this-season/"><i> Yes to the Dress</i> </a>(Omarosa is currently <a href="http://madamenoire.com/782286/omarosa-getting-married-can-experience-wedding-extraness-say-yes-dress/">engaged to pastor John Allen Newman.</a>)
It also includes the realest gig of them all: <em><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/04/omarosa-gets-job-in-trump-white-house.html">public engagement assistant to president-elect Donald Trump.</a></em>
I swear, what can't Omarosa do?
Achievements aside, what's most impressive about Omarosa is her character – or at least the one she has crafted over the years.
More specifically, when most Black girls smile appeasingly, almost apologetically, during their moment in the spotlight, Omarosa does not smile.
She does not genuflect or shrink either.
Instead, she is more likely to channel her inner Cruella De Ville and proclaim without fear, “I have absolutely no respect for Piers. My whole mission is to break him down.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vvW5nq2oDg
When you get a chance, watch this 30 minute “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quUnfvIgKQc&t=1619s">Best of Omarosa vs. Piers Morgan</a>” compilation video, which I promise will bring plenty of delight to your subversive little souls.
Anyway, what's most interesting about the aforementioned clip is, regardless of Morgan's smugness, irrespective of his White male entitlement and despite his best efforts to malign her as yet another angry Black woman, Omarosa refused to let him get the best of her.
Instead, she owned and exploited the image. And eventually used it skillfully against her enemies. Like Morgan, who we all know were secretly intimated by her mere presence.
And like Wendy Williams who...well, we have no idea <i>why</i> Omarosa went in on Williams in this 2008 episode of her talk show. But let's be honest, aren't we secretly glad she did:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar_bd79Cbh0
And part II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFzmQfHFl48
Anyway, some would say her persona is all just a cunning strategy meant to draw up attention. And those people would likely be correct.
Omarosa is not only a master at media manipulation, but she once taught a class on it – at her alma mater Howard University to be more exact. And from many accounts, a pretty damn good class.
As noted by CAP in the article <a href="http://madamenoire.com/321204/bitch-switch-omarosa-taught-brand-management/"><em>“The Old Switcheroo: What Omarosa Taught Me About Brand Management:”</em></a>
<blockquote>“With Omarosa as my “professor,” I got a chance to get to know her professionally and personally, and took a look behind the scenes at her brand management. And she was nothing like what I saw on television. It was almost like Omarosa the professor wouldn’t even sit with someone like Omarosa from The Apprentice. She was kind, articulate, patient, and, surprisingly, appeared to be very genuine. She opened up her Rolodex and had some pretty impressive people (no celebrities though) as guest speakers in our weekly classes.
Over the years it has been a challenge seeing how she is portrayed on television and how it directly conflicts with the person I came to enjoy throughout our four-month weekly night class. When I think of that person and the one on television, I’m not sure which is the real Omarosa. But what I do know is each character is deliberate.”</blockquote>
Perhaps Omarosa's ability to persona-switch is something fellow reality television star Bethenny Frankel should have thought about before sneak dissing her and then inviting her on her short-lived talk show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng87SoasKiA
And part II:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkcEZHwE0g8
And Frankel's show was<a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/bethenny-frankel-reacts-to-talk-show-cancellation-i-am-relieved-im-a-little-over-myself-2014252"> canceled a few months after that episode aired</a>.
I know what you're thinking: “Omarosa is a liar, a backstabber (hello, Randall Pinkett) and a minion of Donald Trump. There is nothing redeemable about her”
In some ways, I see your point. There is virtue in being good, selfless and dignified. Look at Beyoncé. Look at Michelle Obama. Look at Hillary Clinton.
But sometimes, being nice and selfless – plus woman – offers us little rewards.
Sometimes being good, selfless and dignified means bowing down to White male patriarchy (ahem...Piers Morgan). And sometimes it means being victim to respectability politics (ahem...Wendy Williams) and White women feminism (that's right: I'm talking about Frankel).
To paraphrase <a href="https://vimeo.com/104211244">Unbreakable's Mr. Glass,</a> the scariest thing in this world is to not know your place or why you're here.
And for all intents and purposes, Black girls (and women) have yet to fully know, or even embrace, our place in this world.
Yeah, we live for our children. We live for our men. And we even live for our community.
But rarely are we taught to live for us, first.
To be selfish. To say “no” and mean it. To respect our grievances, opinions, wants and desires. To aggressively go after all we want in life.
Even if it means not being liked. And even if it means becoming a villain....
Despite the risk to reputation, Omarosa has found a way to take the “ABW” image that many Black women – including the superheroes – have been branded with, and masterfully use it to her advantage.
And while her choices on who, and ultimately what, she has become are not my own (I'm <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/297430-omarosa-trumps-haters-will-be-forced-to-bow-down-to-him"><i>not bowing down to Donald Trump</i></a>), there is something very admirable about the gumption to do it her way, unapologetically.
And a refreshing change of pace.
After all, we are a culture that has given an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXnNOBj26lk">alleged rapist a standing ovation at the Oscars </a>and has turned a <a href="http://www.vh1.com/shows/martha-snoops-potluck-dinner-party">former gangbanger into cooking show host</a>. Surely there is room for Omarosa's mayhem.
<em>Image via WENN</em>
<i>Charing Ball is a writer, cultural critic and smarty-pants Black feminist from Philadelphia. To learn more, visit<a href="https://nineteenseventy-seven.com/"> NineteenSeventy-Seven.com</a>.</i>
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