Shea Coulee, Jasmine Masters, Eureka O'Hara & More Queens Discuss Racism in the 'Drag Race' Fandom: Watch

In the latest installment of Billboard Pride’s “Spillin’ the Tea” video series, Jasmine Masters, Tammie Brown, Shea Couleé, Ginger Minj, Eureka O'Hara and Miz Cracker discuss the growing prevalence of racism within the RuPaul’s Drag Race fandom, which was brought to light by The Vixen during the current season of the reality show.

Shea Couleé asks her fellow queens what their thoughts are on the subject, with Jasmine Masters revealing that she does not read what people post about her on social media. Therefore, if people write anything critical of her, it does nothing to her. “It's not bringing me down, 'cause I'm a strong person,” she adds. “I already know who I am.”

Couleé shares that she considers herself to be fortunate that she received a lot of support from the show’s fandom, but that at the same time, she was also the target of race-based hate. The most difficult aspect of that, she says, it that in the outside world, it’s already “so nasty” for them because they are marginalized people, “especially in the LGBT community.”

“Sometimes it's really difficult and challenging when you feel like you're getting hate from people within your own community,” she continues. “You want to have everyone lift you up…And I think one thing that is really great about what has happened with Vixen is that you may disagree with the things that she says, she's a really polarizing person. But the thing that's great about polarizing people is that they create dialogue.”

Eureka O'Hara – who frequently clashed with The Vixen on season 10 – also weighs in on the subject, acknowledging that while they did have personal issues, it had nothing to do with race. “But of course, immediately the fandom go straight to it being a racial issue,” she says, “Which is not fair to either side…I support The Vixen in everything she represents…She wants to represent a piece of her community that she feels like a lot of people are afraid to stand up and represent in.”

O'Hara and Ginger Minj also point out that coming from very small, southern towns, they were brought with very specific mindsets. “What really opened my eyes to that was on season seven,” Ginger Minj says.

“Kennedy [Davenport] and I, we went the entire journey together," she continues. "We spent that time together. We made a lot of the same mistakes together and shared a lot of the same successes. But looking at social media, yes, I got hate. I got plenty of hate, but looking at her getting a hundred times more hate than I got for the same exact situation was really eye-opening to me. And it made me realize, it doesn't matter if you are a fat homosexual cross-dresser. You are still privileged and you still are elevated to a certain level without even trying.”

You can watch the full video above to hear much more from the queens discussing racial bias in the drag fandom.