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 social gathering. This time, the apology was in entrance of a dwell studio viewers.
In October in the course of 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 pal’s protection. On the time, her pal was a sophomore at Lamar Excessive Faculty in Houston the place Blitzer, who was 18, had attended. Within the tweets, she dismissed the blackface costume as “dumb however 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 previous, I’ve made some uneducated, ignorant and albeit, incorrect, feedback on my social media accounts. Particularly, in 2016, I used misguided arguments on Twitter to defend a pupil who wearing Blackface as Tupac for Halloween.”
“I’m deeply sorry to these I’ve harm, particularly these inside the Black group, not as a result of these screenshots have resurfaced, however as a result of I ever shared these dangerous opinions in any respect,” the 24-year-old continued, including that her younger age was no excuse for her actions.
Greer, initially from the Houston space, gave a robust first impression to “The Bachelor” star Zach Shallcross. Nevertheless, 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 in regards to the difficulty throughout Tuesday’s episode, during which 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 have carried out a really poor job up to now of addressing critical subjects head on.”
“I’ve been wanting to deal with this. I don’t wish to sweep it beneath the rug,” Blitzer started. “What I failed to say in my apology was that what occurred was racist. It isn’t in regards to the intent, it is in regards to the affect. And this acquaintance of mine that I knew performing blackface was racist, me defending it was racist, my ignorance was racist, and I am simply so ashamed. I am simply deeply sorry that I harm the Black group.”
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 College and an professional in variety, fairness and inclusion who was within the viewers for the episode.
“I feel it is essential to call and provides voice when racism comes up,” Banks stated. “The fact is we will not good our method out of racism. We will say the appropriate factor, however what are we gonna do, what actions are we going to take? In order that’s why it is actually essential to not simply be performative however to coach ourselves to be keen to grasp the historical past behind actions and be keen to do one thing completely different.”
Fellow Season 27 contestant Alyssa Jacobs, who’s Black, stated it “was hurtful to listen to and see the issues” Greer had stated on Twitter, in accordance with Individuals. However she stated she “revered” that Greer “all the time confronted it head-on.”
For years, Black followers of the present have referred to as it out for its lack of variety amongst contestants and leads. It wasn’t till after the homicide of George Floyd in 2020 and an internet marketing campaign that ABC producers solid 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 “Additional” interview with the primary Black Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay, during which he defended Season 25 contestant Rachael Kirkconnell for attending a fraternity social gathering in 2018 with an antebellum South theme, the interval when slavery was authorized in Southern states.
After the interview, Harrison shortly apologized however in the end left the sequence 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 variety. She referred to as for the hiring of extra various producers, refraining from “creating problematic storylines” for folks of coloration and discovering leads that had expertise with interracial relationship.
Throughout Lindsey’s “Bachelorette” season, followers attacked her on-line with racial slurs.
Then, racist tweets from of one in every 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 distinction between the NAACP and the KKK? Look ahead to it…One has the sense of disgrace to cowl their racist a– faces.”
And final fall, “Bachelorette” Season 19 contestant Erich Schwer was outed for one more blackface incident. A Reddit consumer had posted a highschool yearbook photograph of Schwer dressed as Jimi Hendrix along with his face painted black. Schwer went on to win the season and have become engaged to Gabby Windey.
Each males have since apologized.
This story initially appeared in Los Angeles Occasions.
