Bachelor Contestant Leah Block Apologizes for Her Racially Insensitive Tweet
This season of The Bachelorette has seen its fair share of drama, but the latest story is happening off camera and involves a former Bachelor contestant, Leah Block, who has had to issue a public apology after posting a (since-deleted) tweet about Rachel Lindsay and her bevy of bachelors.
“I’m sitting here watching @BacheloretteABC and my roommate just sat down on the couch and said, ‘What is this? @LoveAndHipHop_? DEAD,” Block tweeted. (She later deleted the post.)
In light of the swift backlash she received, Block wrote a long apology, which she posted to her Facebook page. In it, she acknowledges the damaging language she used and commits to being more sensitive going forward.
“I acknowledge that entertaining this kind of humor is a passive and careless action that stifles the progress the black community has made in television and continue to make in this industry,” she wrote. “It is vitally important to prioritize these experiences (of black folks in the reality television world) and help destroy the oppressive forces that threaten minority communities. My tweet did neither of those things and I see that as a personal failure.”
Block also unequivocally apologized adding, “I accept responsibility for my ignorance and as I move forward I will engage in these issues — so I can become an informed ally who would never consider that tweet to be funny in the first place.”
In response to the initial tweet (prior to Block’s apology), Rachel Lindsay clapped back via Twitter, saying, “Let me know if she wants to meet Lee…they sound like they would have a lot in common #ihavetimetoday.” The tweet referenced former contestant Lee Garrett, who got caught in his own firestorm of racist accusations this spring.
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(h/t Us Magazine; photos via ABC + David Becker/Getty)