Actress Ellie Kemper acknowledged her white “privilege” on Monday and apologized for participating two decades ago in a debutante ball organized by an organization that she said had an “unquestionably racist, sexist and elitist past.”
“I was not aware of this story at the time, but ignorance is not an excuse,” Kemper, 41, said in a statement posted on Instagram. “I was old enough to have educated myself before I got involved. I unequivocally regret, denounce and reject white supremacy. At the same time, I recognize that because of my race and my privilege, I am the beneficiary of a system that has delivered unequal justice and unequal rewards. “
Ms. Kemper was crowned Queen of Love and Beauty at the 1999 Veiled Prophet Ball in St. Louis, Missouri, and was escorted by William HT “Bucky” Bush, the younger brother of former President George HW Bush, the Daily reported. Beast.
The “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star had been keeping quiet until now after a May 31 tweet calling her “queen of the KKK” and including a newspaper photo of her coronation at the event went viral. The event was founded by former Confederate soldier Alonzo Slayback and was racially segregated until 1979, although any possible connection to the Ku Klux Klan is unfounded, the Daily Beast reported.
Ms. Kemper said in her apology that she hopes to use her experience and “privilege” to help create a “better society.”
“There is a very natural temptation, when you become the object of criticism on the Internet, to tell yourself that your detractors are making mistakes,” he said. “But sometime in the past week, I realized that many of the forces behind the criticism are forces that I have spent my life supporting and that I agree with. I firmly believe in the values of kindness, integrity and inclusion. I tried to live my life according to these values. If my experience is an indication that organizations and institutions with a past that does not live up to these beliefs are held accountable, then I have to view this experience in a positive light.
“I want to apologize to the people I have disappointed and promise that, in the future, I will listen, continue to educate myself and use my privilege in support of the better society that I believe we are capable of becoming,” he added.
So no one was going to tell me that Ellie Kemper, aka Kimmy Schmidt, was crowned Queen of the KKK in 1999. pic.twitter.com/QdHJ6wGZGv
– charlie (@dianahungerr) May 31, 2021
(function (d, s, id) {
var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
js = d.createElement(s);
js.id = id;
js.src = “https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5”;
fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, ‘script’, ‘facebook-jssdk’));
.
