RuPaul’s Drag Race: Asia O’Hara Opens Up About Discrimination Among Fans

RuPaul’s Drag Race season 10 contestant Asia O’Hara was the first queen to be featured on Werq The World: The Docu-Series season 2, where she opened up about certain fans who ask her to step outside of a picture in order for them to get a photo with their nearly-always non-black favorite queen. It is not new for queens to call out racism among the fans of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and even season winners have chosen to detach themselves from the franchise after years of dealing with those racist messages and behaviors. As the protests honoring Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmad Aubrey intensify around the world, RuPaul’s Drag Race queens Bob the Drag Queen and Peppermint have also been using their platforms to better educate fans who may not understand the realities of the black community facing systemic racism over the course of many centuries.

On RuPaul’s Drag Race season 10, The Vixen started a much-needed conversation about how black contestants are perceived on reality shows whenever they speak their minds or engage in conflict with a non-black counterpart. In many ways, The Vixen’s point was not exclusive to RuPaul’s Drag Race, and served instead as an exposé of how reality TV producers and editors often frame black contestants as “angry” or “difficult.” At the time, The Vixen was not immediately understood by most of the season 10 cast – with the exception of Asia O’Hara, who advocated for her throughout the season and, most notably, supported The Vixen’s decision to walk out of the reunion episode.

The first episode of Werq The World: The Docu-Series season 2 featured Asia O’Hara dealing with her responsibilities as the host of the entire show. Then, during a behind-the-scenes interaction with RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 runner-up Naomi Smalls, Asia discloses that a fan thought that she was actually Monet X Change at a recent meet-the-greet. To put things into context, Asia says, “A lot of people say that the fanbase is racist. I don’t think that that’s necessarily the case. It’s just that the fanbase is not made up of a lot of people that are like me. (…) A sixteen-year-old blonde girl is not going look at me the way that they look at Kameron Michaels.” However, Asia also points out the discrimination that she faces among fans, declaring that meet-and-greets are her least favorite part of touring because fans “ask [her] to step out of the picture so they can have just a picture with the other girls, like Kameron and Aquaria.” This particular behavior, Asia notes, has become a trigger point for her mental health.

Werq The World: The Docu-Series season 2 features footage from the Werq The World Tour 2019 that took place between February and November, which means that Asia’s statements are now a year old. However, given that the docu-series has just premiered this week, fans are only now learning about the fact that Asia has felt this way for a long time. Yesterday, other drag performers who also are part of the RuPaul’s Drag Race brand reacted to Asia’s statements in the documentary. Check Shea Couleé, Akeria Davenport, and Juice Boxx’s tweets below:

Given how many black queens have been prominently featured and celebrated on RuPaul’s Drag Race – many of whom have been crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar or Miss Congeniality – it is perplexing that their hard work is ignored by fans who interact with them in real life. Still, the impact of the Black Lives Matter movement is far-reaching, and the drag community is now making more space for these conversations to happen.

Werq The World: The Docu-Series season 2 airs every Tuesday on WOW Presents Plus.

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Bernardo Sim
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Bernardo Sim writes about TV shows, queer culture, & Brazilian media. Born and raised in the Amazon, he now lives in South Florida. he/him

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