Following months of controversy surrounding her racist past, Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell posted a video to Instagram asking her white followers to stop defending her.
Source: Craig Sjodin / Getty
This season’s Bachelor frontrunner posted the video on Thursday, saying that she will dedicate her platform to sharing anti-racism resources moving forward. Elsewhere in the clip, she also condemned those who have questioned the backlash she has received since previous posts of hers resurfaced online, the most notorious of which includes photos of her attending an antebellum plantation-themed ball.
This comes two weeks after Kirkconnell put out her original, written apology.
“Over the last few weeks, since I put my statement out, I’ve gotten a lot of messages,” Rachael said in the video on Thursday. “I’ve got a lot of people asking me, well, what have you done to change since then? And I’ve also had a lot of people message me saying that they aren’t understanding why people are so upset. But they want to, and they’ve asked for resources, which I think is great.”
“But then there’s also people messaging me saying ‘You know, you’ve done nothing wrong, don’t listen to people,’ ” she continued. “I think that the first big step in all of this is white people stepping up and taking accountability. Things will never change if we don’t all work together in working towards this racial progress and this unity that we want.”
The Bachelor contestant goes on to say that she has been “hesitant” to share any anti-racism resources on her platform up until this point because she doesn’t want people “thinking that, you know, it’s performative or that it’s something that I don’t truly stand by.”
“I’ve come to realize that sitting aside and hiding in the corner and, you know, avoid[ing] being called performative — that doesn’t help anyone or anything,” she explained. “Even if that is what people think when I speak on these subjects of injustice and racism, you know, that’s not what really matters.”
She concluded her video by asking anyone who is “defending” her throughout this controversy, saying she did nothing wrong to “please stop.”
“If you are in my comments or defending me anywhere telling people that I did nothing wrong, that there’s nothing to be hurt about, there’s nothing to be angry about or offended about, please stop,” she said. “That’s not our place to tell people what they can and can’t be offended about. That’s wrong and that’s part of the problem.”
After posting her video, Rachael shared multiple resources on her Instagram story, explaining why the confederate flag is racist, the truth about Native American-inspired Halloween costumes (another thing Kirkconnell was criticized for), and racism within the fraternity system.
Comments
Bossip Comment Policy
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.