Kathie of 'Black Ink Crew' Is A Mother, An Activist, and a Social Worker, So Please Stop Calling Her A Crazy Baby Mama

Kathie has always been seen on Black Ink Crew basically wildn' out on O'S**t to get him to pay more attention her her and their son, Achilles, however, Kathie is a lot more than just O'S**t's seemingly crazy baby mother; she is actually a very dope young woman. In addition to appearing on the show, Kathie is an activist, a social worker, and a yoga instructor. In this exclusive VH1 interview, Kathie speaks about moving on from O'S**t and all his baby mama drama, channeling positive energy through meditation, and gives us her two cents on Donna and Dutchess getting freaky in Miami.

VH1: Let's jump right into it, how do you feel about how you are portrayed on the show and what people say about you?

Kathie: It’s really hard, I’m a really sensitive person. Not only that, I’m a very good person. I’m always putting myself before others and I care about people, and just to be portrayed as a monster and people saying things about that’s not even true, that’s so far from the truth. I’m still learning how to not take to heart what people say about me. To be honest, people meet me for two minutes and they're like "You’re totally not what they portray you as." It doesn’t take long. Not even in person, people follow my Twitter and they're like "Wait, this person sounds smart."

Does your son, Achilles, watch the show?

He does not watch the show.

Are you and O'S**t on good terms right now?

It's just been so unfortunate cause I don’t know why people swear up and down that this man is trying to be a good father to his son. He’s not. If anything, I feel like I’ve been very patient. I’ve been very understanding. I’ve been trying to be the bigger and better person throughout all of this but he has done a lot of damage and he’s not present and he continues to do a lot of damage. My son, he’s very sensitive and when he gets caught up in his emotions, it’s sort of like he drowns himself in the pain and the frustrations that he’s feeling.

Have you and O'S**t ever been on good terms at all?

Oh yeah, even during filming there were times where we were on good terms but of course, everyone thinks that I’m in love with him but I just want peace between us. That’s the only thing I was striving for. I knew I never wanted to be with this man ever again the moment he told me he got Anya pregnant. But do I want beef? Do I want drama? Do I want conflict with the father of my son? Absolutely not.

Do you have a relationship with Anya? Have you met their child?

No, I haven’t. Well, I saw her once and that was by accident. Anya was trying to fight and I was like you’re holding your baby, stop. But I have more of a relationship with LuLu. I actually raised her the first 4 years of her life when Coley wasn’t around. It's very funny how quickly Coley was to judge me and talk s--- about me on the show but when she was going through her dark times, I stepped up to the plate and I mothered her child, up to the age of 4. Ever since that fight I haven’t seen LuLu. I think that was the best thing to happen to Coley because even though I showed nothing but love and kindness towards her, I think she felt a way that she missed the first four years of her daughter's life and I was the one taking care of her but I was doing her a favor and I was never trying to be LuLu’s mom. I just experienced a lot of betrayal on this show and people don’t see that side. They just see crazy Kathie.

Have you ever had concerns about O'S**t's drug use?

Absolutely, I’m always concerned. I’m not going to lie, lately I stopped caring. I had to. He proven to me time after time he’s never going to change. I do get concerned. But I’m at the point that that’s not my problem anymore. He needs to get help. My only concern is that he provides financially for Achilles so I can continue to be the best mom I can be.

What do you think about your cast mates?

I get so frustrated. I try to stay humble, I’m Latina from the Bronx so I have my reactions, clearly, and I don’t separate myself from the "ratchetness" either. I hate the Donna and Dutchess storyline, I hate that s--t because I know Donna and I know Dutchess and they’re both beautiful strong women but on TV it's just like why are our ugly sides only exposed? Also, with Sky I get very frustrated. I’m sorry like I might sound f---ed up saying this, but it's like, everyone trashes me, everyone puts me down to the ground. No one hardly says anything positive about me, but this woman who gave up both of her kids and has not made any effort to be back in their lives now that she’s successful, I feel like she’s glorified and praised and it's frustrating 'cause I think it's not fair.

Did you begin doing yoga to escape the madness surrounded by the show?

I actually started meditating and doing yoga a few weeks after that fight with Kaylin back in season two. I don't know if you remember but in season two my first scene was that fight and I was already a ticking time bomb. But once that happened I realized that I need to get help because I wasn’t acting normal. I was also being arrested a lot for graffiti. I was a graffiti artist. I was getting arrested like every six weeks the police would come to my house. So I was under a lot of stress and she knew I was going to fight her if I saw her again. No one knows like the back story.

Can you explain your journey as a social activist?

I’m an activist to people of color and for women’s rights. More for women of color. I’m very active and vocal about the shootings of a lot of young black men also I worked with the Black Panthers for a little bit. I used to be a social worker, too. And now I’m also part of an organization called People Power Movement and I used to go to all the protests and I was there front and center. Last time I did a protest was a few years back when a young Dominican boy got shot by the police in the Bronx and it was an accident. They thought he was the robber but he was actually fleeing from the robbers. It was horrible, but I remember protesting and this is when I decided to stop because I felt everyone’s anger and pain and frustrations and I didn’t really understand what was going on and it felt really heavy. Ever since then I slowed down a lot and especially since then I started having trouble with housing and I was burning out in social work and I was like, saving everybody but myself.

Now that you've made the decision to remain as peaceful as possible, what's next for you?

I think I’m ready to return back to the social service field but I really want to take my yoga with me and work as a consultant to offer self care methods for individuals in homeless shelters, troubled teens, just the undeserved community. I’m really big about servicing the underdog. I guess Black Ink Crew made me appreciate the underdog a lot more because I am the underdog. I want to bring yoga to society's rejects and help people's state of mind like, you’re not who they say you are. You’re what you believe you are and if you believe you’re great you shall be great despite the circumstances that you’re in.