Pop Culturette Flashback: When Shereé Whitfield Gave Us “Who Gon’ Check Me, Boo?”
By Alexus Mosley
Photo Credit: Bravo
Some reality TV quotes are funny for a season, while others become part of culture.
Shereé Whitfield gave us one of the latter during the Season 2 premiere of The Real Housewives of Atlanta in 2009, when a tense meeting with party planner Anthony Shorter produced five words that would outlive the argument itself: “Who gon’ check me, boo?”
At the time, Shereé was planning an “Independence Party” to celebrate her divorce from Bob Whitfield. The problem was that she was increasingly unhappy with how Anthony was handling the event. According to Shereé, he had been making promises he couldn’t deliver on, and the meeting was supposed to be about ending their working relationship. Instead, things went left.
The two began going back and forth until Anthony warned Shereé that she needed to be careful before she got “checked.” Shereé barely blinked.
“Who gon’ check me, boo?” And just like that, Housewives history was made.
The brilliance of the moment was not only the line but the delivery too. Shereé looked genuinely puzzled by the suggestion that anyone in the room was capable of checking her. Years later, she said the response was completely spontaneous and reflected exactly what she was thinking in that moment. That authenticity is probably why the quote stuck.
Long after the Independence Party drama faded from memory, “Who gon’ check me, boo?” became one of the defining phrases of the entire Real Housewives franchise. Bravo has repeatedly revisited the scene, and Andy Cohen has called it one of his favorite Housewives lines.
It also became much bigger than RHOA. The phrase moved on to memes, merchandise, reaction posts, and everyday conversations, becoming the perfect response whenever someone dares to question your authority.
And Shereé knew exactly what she had created. When asked years later whether she realized the line would become so iconic, she explained that it simply came out naturally during the argument. There was no attempt to manufacture a catchphrase.
Reality television has spent decades trying to give us unforgettable one-liners. Shereé gave us one without even trying. More than 15 years later, the question remains unanswered:
Who exactly was going to check her, boo?