ABC Bachelor in Paradise.
One Bachelor in Paradise star is speaking out after a photo of her wearing a jacket with the confederate flag on it started circulating online.
The photo, which was uploaded to Reddit (you can see it here), showed Demi Burnett wearing an olive green-colored jacket with a confederate flag patch on its arm. She paired the over-sized coat with a short, white skirt, and a pair of sandals.
The photo was originally shared by Burnett’s boyfriend at the time (last year), Slater Davis. Burnett said that the coat was a “gift” from Davis’ father.
Since the time it was uploaded, the photo has started to go viral. Burnett took to social media to apologize for wearing it, saying that she has been an “ignorant, self-absorbed, sack-of-sh*t for most of [her] life.”
Here’s what you need to know:
Demi Burnett Posted 2 Videos as Part of Her Public Apology
Demi Burnett faced the criticism head-on, in two candid videos that she posted to Twitter in the very early hours of Tuesday morning. In the caption of the first video, Burnett wrote that a PR team “would’ve told [her] to ignore it,” but she added that ignoring it didn’t “sit right” with her.
“F*ck it. People are telling me I shouldn’t say anything, I’m going to say something about this,” Burnett started. “So, there’s been this picture that’s been resurfaced of me wearing a jacket that had a confederate flag on it. That jacket was given to me by my ex, his dad actually gave it to me, and I had no idea the weight that the confederate flag held whenever I was wearing it. And I just wore it for that one night, and it was a Yeezy jacket. I thought it was so cool. I was like, ‘yeah, Yeezy.’ And I didn’t even pay attention to that,” she added, referring to the patch on the jacket’s arm.
“That’s ignorance. That’s ignorant of me not to pay attention to the confederate flag. Even more ignorant of me to not even know how harmful that is to people. So, like, yeah. I royally f*cked up wearing that. And I am so f*cking sorry. I’m disgusted with myself. I’m embarrassed, like, it doesn’t even matter how I feel. I’m just so f*cking sorry because that is not what I stand for, that is not what I’m about. And I’m really mad that I ever wore it,” she said.
Burnett posted a second video in which she said that she “genuinely had no idea” what she was “representing.”
Demi Burnett Has Spoken out Against Racism on Twitter in the Past
About a year before wearing a jacket with the confederate flag on the sleeve, Demi Burnett tweeted that she would block anyone who was racist.
“Let me be clear. Racism is NOT welcome ANYWHERE. I will block you if you’re racist, even if you’re a fan of mine. That is straight up cruel, disgusting, and regressive,” she tweeted in 2019.
In June 2020, Burnett also spoke out about racism with a tweet.
“White people do not think they are racist because we do not understand what racism truly is. We cannot understand oppression because white people are not oppressed. Time to educate ourselves and our peers. Covert racism is still racism,” she wrote.
READ NEXT: Rachael Kirkconnell Accused of Attending a Racist Event