Less than 24 hours after Bachelor Nation met Greer Blitzer, a contestant on Zach Shallcross’ season of the ABC series, she is apologizing for past racist online behavior.
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“The journey to love is filled with lessons and these lessons are also made on our journey of growth. In my past, I have made some uneducated, ignorant and frankly, wrong comments on my social media accounts,” the 24-year-old Texas native began on Tuesday, January 24, via Instagram Stories. “In particular, I used misguided arguments on Twitter to defend a student who dressed in Blackface as Tupac for Halloween.”
She continued: “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 these harmful opinions at all. Time and age do not excuse my actions, but this is not a reflection of who I am today.”
Earlier this month, Reddit users shared screenshots of Blitzer supporting a fellow teenager who was under fire for wearing Blackface and a Tupac shirt at a party.
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“The students involved didn’t even know what black face was so my point exactly. It wasn’t an intentional racist act,” Blitzer wrote at the time. “She did not paint herself black because she felt superior to black [people]. Putting white powder on your face isn’t okay either. That didn’t make the news did it? I apologize if this offended you but you must understand it was not initially supposed to be perceived that way at all.”
On Tuesday, Blitzer concluded her statement by noting that she does not “stand by or condone the damaging opinions and behaviors I share during that stage of my life and will forever regret making those offensive remarks.”
Blitzer had a strong debut on The Bachelor, earning Shallcross’ first impression rose on Monday.
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“With the night that can get chaotic, something with Greer that was really helpful was how comforting she made me feel during that,” the ABC lead told Us Weekly exclusively about Blitzer before the premiere aired. “I didn’t feel like I was getting rushed or pulled into a million different directions with Greer. She was able to kind of just pull me aside and make me feel relaxed. So when I looked back at who I was gonna give the rose to, it was just a really, really good impression of like, ‘OK, it’s fine. We can take it easy. It’s not this chaotic night one all the time.’”
Blitzer is hardly the first contestant in the franchise to apologize for past actions. Last season, a pic of eventual Bachelorette season 19 winner Erich Schwer in Blackface from his high school yearbook made headlines. In 2021, Chris Harrison was in the news for his apparent defense of eventual Bachelor season 26 winner Rachael Kirkconnell after old pics of her at a college party in an antebellum-style dress.
“It’s always evolving,” ABC exec Robert Mills told The Hollywood Reporter about the “vetting process” for contestants in a story published on Tuesday. “So we’re obviously trying to get better. Obviously, your goal is to have zero issues. As we go season by season, we try and get better and better because we hate when these issues come up. I do think we are improving, and we’re learning how to perfect this as we keep doing it.”
The Bachelor airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
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