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‘The Bachelor’s Greer Blitzer Apologizes For Defending Blackface: “This Is Not A Reflection Of Who I Am Today”

A new season of The Bachelor means new off-camera controversies, and 24-year-old contestant Greer Blitzer is kicking things off with another racism scandal.

After Season 27 casting was announced, a Reddit user posted screenshots from Blitzer’s old social media posts that showed her defending someone who wore Blackface via Twitter and sporting a Trump campaign sticker in a photo. It wasn’t long before Bachelor Nation caught wind of the posts and criticized Blitzer and the show’s casting department, so the medical sales rep from Houston, Texas, posted an apology via Instagram Stories ahead of Episode 2.

“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. In particular, I used misguided arguments on Twitter to defend a student who dressed in Blackface as Tupac for Halloween,” Blitzer wrote.

“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,” she continued,. “I do not stand by or condone the damaging opinions and behaviors I shared during that stage of my life and will forever regret making those offensive remarks.”

The Bachelor franchise is known for a troubling pattern of problematic behavior and systemic racism. After last season of The Bachelorette, contestant (and winner) Erich Schwer apologized for a Blackface photo in his high school yearbook. Rachel Kirkconnell, the winner of Matt James’ Bachelor season, apologized after photos of her attending an Antebellum South-themed college party surfaced online. And remember in 2021, when former host and executive producer Chris Harrison came under fire for excusing and defending Kirkconnell’s historical racism to the first Black bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay? Those are just a few of the franchise’s problematic moments. So, yeah. They still have a lot of work to do.

Blitzer received Shallcross’ first impression rose during the Season 27 premiere, and Shallcross seemed especially excited to get to know her more in the future, so we’ll see how long she sticks around and if she’ll address her social media posts any further in a “Women Tell All”-type setting down the line.

The first two episodes of The Bachelor