Greer Blitzer, a contestant on the most recent season of “The Bachelor,” gave a second apology for defending a former classmate who wearing a racist blackface costume at a Halloween get together. This time, the apology was in entrance of a dwell studio viewers.
In October through the filming of the twenty seventh season of the ABC actuality relationship present, which already had a troubled historical past of racism, screenshots of deleted tweets had surfaced on Reddit that confirmed Blitzer coming to her buddy’s protection. At the time, her buddy was a sophomore at Lamar High School in Houston the place Blitzer, who was 18, had attended. In the tweets, she dismissed the blackface costume as “dumb but not racist” and that “it wasn’t an intentional racist act.”
Shortly after the season’s first episode aired in January, Greer issued her first apology in her Instagram story and wrote, “In my past, I have made some uneducated, ignorant and frankly, wrong, comments on my social media accounts. In particular, in 2016, I used misguided arguments on Twitter to defend a student who dressed in Blackface as Tupac for Halloween.”
“I am deeply sorry to those I have hurt, especially those within the Black community, not because these screenshots have resurfaced, but because I ever shared those harmful opinions at all,” the 24-year-old continued, including that her younger age was no excuse for her actions.
Greer, initially from the Houston space, gave a powerful first impression to “The Bachelor” star Zach Shallcross. However, Shallcross in the end determined to not grant Greer a rose for a hometown date, which despatched Greer house.
She was as soon as once more confronted concerning the concern throughout Tuesday’s episode, wherein the eradicated contestants sat with the present’s host, Jesse Palmer, for transient interviews in entrance of a dwell viewers.
Palmer acknowledged the present’s historical past of racist incidents, admitting that “as a franchise, we’ve done a very poor job in the past of addressing serious topics head on.”
“I’ve been wanting to address this. I don’t want to sweep it under the rug,” Blitzer started. “What I failed to mention in my apology was that what happened was racist. It’s not about the intent, it’s about the impact. And this acquaintance of mine that I knew performing blackface was racist, me defending it was racist, my ignorance was racist, and I’m just so ashamed. I’m just deeply sorry that I hurt the Black community.”
She stated she was educating herself on the historical past of blackface. Beforehand, Blitzer had met with Kira Banks, a psychology professor at St. Louis University and an skilled in range, fairness and inclusion who was within the viewers for the episode.
“I think it’s important to name and give voice when racism comes up,” Banks stated. “The reality is we can’t nice our way out of racism. We can say the right thing, but what are we gonna do, what actions are we going to take? So that’s why it’s really important not to just be performative but to educate ourselves to be willing to understand the history behind actions and be willing to do something different.”
Fellow Season 27 contestant Alyssa Jacobs, who’s Black, stated it “was hurtful to hear and see the things” Greer had stated on Twitter, in keeping with People. But she stated she “respected” that Greer “always faced it head-on.”
For years, Black followers of the present have referred to as it out for its lack of range amongst contestants and leads. It wasn’t till after the homicide of George Floyd in 2020 and a web based marketing campaign that ABC producers forged Matt James as the primary Black lead on “The Bachelor.”
That season had additionally been overshadowed by racism when then-host Chris Harrison gave a controversial “Extra” interview with the primary Black Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay, wherein he defended Season 25 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell for attending a fraternity get together in 2018 with an antebellum South theme, the interval when slavery was authorized in Southern states.
After the interview, Harrison rapidly apologized however in the end left the collection after 19 years of internet hosting the franchise that features “The Bachelorette.”
Lindsey in 2020 had threatened to chop ties with the franchise if it didn’t decide to extra range. She referred to as for the hiring of extra various producers, refraining from “creating problematic storylines” for individuals of shade and discovering leads that had expertise with interracial relationship.
During Lindsey’s “Bachelorette” season, followers attacked her on-line with racial slurs.
Then, racist tweets from of certainly one of that season’s contestants, Lee Garrett, had surfaced on-line. Garrett referred to the Black Lives Matter motion as a “terrorist group” and in another tweet, requested, “What’s the difference between the NAACP and the KKK? Wait for it…One has the sense of shame to cover their racist a– faces.”
And last fall, “Bachelorette” Season 19 contestant Erich Schwer was outed for another blackface incident. A Reddit user had posted a high school yearbook photo of Schwer dressed as Jimi Hendrix with his face painted black. Schwer went on to win the season and became engaged to Gabby Windey.
Both men have since apologized.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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