“The Bachelor” franchise isn’t any stranger to controversy, and after having been embroiled in race-related scandal lately, the ABC courting present addressed a contestant controversy head-on within the newest episode.
Greer Blitzer is a contestant on the present season of “The Bachelor,” which stars main man Zach Shallcross. Before the season premiered, Reddit customers unearthed former tweets from 2016 the place Blitzer defended sporting blackface. The actuality star apologized on her personal social media in January for the racially insensitive tweets, however the present had not addressed the controversy till now.
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On Tuesday’s episode of “The Bachelor: Women Tell All,” host Jesse Palmer put Blitzer within the scorching seat and requested her tackle the backlash concerning her “troubling” and “disturbing” posts, in entrance of a studio viewers.
“The truth is, as a franchise, we’ve done a very poor job in the past of addressing serious topics head-on, and we’re not going to miss that opportunity here tonight,” Palmer stated.
“I’ve been wanting to address this. I don’t want to sweep it under the rug,” Blitzer instructed Palmer. “What happened was racist. It’s not about the intent; it’s about the impact.”
The scandal surrounding Blitzer surfaced final yr as soon as “The Bachelor” Season 27 solid was introduced. In her outdated tweets, Blitzer defended a highschool pupil for sporting blackface, allegedly tweeting in 2016, “The students involved didn’t even know what blackface was so my point exactly. It wasn’t an intentional racist act.” Another alleged tweet learn, “This previous incident was dumb not racist? She did not paint herself black because she felt superior to black ppl.” And in one other, Blitzer allegedly wrote, “Putting white powder on your face isn’t okay either. That didn’t make the news did it?”
On Tuesday night’s episode, Blitzer defined, “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. “I can’t go back in time. All I can do is try to be better now and try to do better in my future.”
Blitzer stated she has educated herself, studied lectures and has been working with Dr. Kira Banks, a professor and variety, fairness and inclusion marketing consultant. Dr. Banks was seated within the viewers at “Women Tell All,” and addressed the bigger difficulty, talking about taking actual motion versus performative phrases.
“I really wanted to dive deep into the history of blackface and understand why it was wrong, why it was offensive. The research that I was able to do, I realized it was symbolism for dehumanizing the Black community,” Blitzer stated. “What I said was wrong,” she added. “Defending that girl was racist. I want to take that accountability, I don’t want to excuse it.”
This is actually not “The Bachelor’s” first run-in with controversial contestants who’ve problematic pasts. Over the years, viewers have questioned the franchise’s means of background checks, particularly within the age of social media.
On most up-to-date season of “The Bachelorette,” which aired final yr, winner Erich Schwer was on the middle of controversy for sporting blackface himself when a photograph of him from his highschool yearbook surfaced on-line. He apologized on social media for what he referred to as an “insensitive photo.” In an interview with Variety, “The Bachelorette” star Gabby Windey (who’s now not in a relationship with Schwer) stated, “He apologized, but ultimately there’s really no excuse for this behavior.”
On Season 25 of “The Bachelor,” which starred Matt James and aired in 2021, an explosive scandal erupted involving profitable contestant Rachael Kirkconnell that finally resulted within the departure of veteran host Chris Harrison (who was then changed with Palmer). James was the first-ever Black star of the long-running present, and he fell in love with Kirkconnell, who ended up being on the middle of a racially insensitive controversy. During the season, photographs from 2018 surfaced on social media, displaying her in attendance at an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity formal. Harrison defended Kirkconnell in a now-infamous TV interview, performed by former “Bachelorette” Rachel Lindsay, who was the primary Black feminine star of the franchise, the place he invoked the time period “woke police.” He apologized for “wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism,” however the messy state of affairs by no means died down, and Harrison ultimately left the franchise. (Today, James and Kirkconnell are nonetheless fortunately collectively.)
And in 2017, when Lindsay’s historic season aired along with her being the first-ever Black lead on “The Bachelor” franchise, considered one of her contestants had racist and sexist tweets floor on social media.
Blitzer obtained the primary impression rose from Shallcross on the season, that means she was an early frontrunner. She was despatched house on final week’s episode, so is now not within the competitors. She appeared on “Women Tell All,” which brings collectively the solid members to debate (and bicker) concerning the drama on the season.
Immediately after the dialog with Blitzer aired, many social media customers praised Blitzer and “The Bachelor” for a head-on apology and for not dancing the dialog. Others criticized the contestant for needing to talk with a DEI marketing consultant to grasp that defending blackface is racist.
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