Bachelor finalist Rachael Kirkconnell is defending former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay who deactivated her Instagram last week amid the ongoing racism controversy swirling around the ABC reality show.
Lindsay, the franchise’s first Black woman to be cast as The Bachelorette, quit the social media platform due to ‘rude and hateful’ messages directed at her following the departure of host Chris Harrison.
Kirkconnell posted a statement to her own Instagram on Saturday in which she said Lindsay did not deserve to be hounded for her decision to hold others to account for their words and actions.
Bachelor finalist Rachael Kirkconnell is defending Rachel Lindsay and posted a statement to Instagram Saturday saying Lindsay doesn’t deserve to be hounded for calling out racism
Kirkconnell told her fans to ‘be better’ and to stop targeting Lindsay with hateful messages. It came after Lindsay deactivated her own Instagram on Friday due to the harassment
Addressing her fans, Kirkconnell, 24, wrote: ‘You have the opportunity to make a positive difference, to use your energy towards change, and to come together and realize what’s right in a time like this.
‘If you are choosing to rather spread hate, to send cruel, vicious messages, to be mad about people being hurt by racism…do better. Be better.’
She went on: ‘Rachel Lindsay and other BIPOC have called for myself and others to be held accountable. This is needed, and she does not deserve the hate she is receiving.
‘Recognize that she along with every person you send hateful messages to, are human. We are real people, and she should not have to disable her account to escape this toxicity. This is not okay.’
Lindsay, who became ABC’s first Black Bachelorette in 2017, had called out show host Chris Harrison for defending Kirkconnell’s past racist behavior. Kirkconnell said Saturday Lindsay had been right to hold her and others to account
Kirkconnell, who is vying for the hand of Bachelor Matt James, continued: ‘She is doing the hard work that needs to be done for change, and does not deserve to be silenced or ridiculed. If you are someone that has been cruel, find what fuels this hate in your heart, and fix it.’
The fallout has continued after host Chris Harrison decided to step away from the dating competition after defending Kirkconnell’s past racist behavior in an interview two weeks ago.
On Friday, Lindsay’s Higher Learning co-host, Van Lathan, revealed the 35-year-old former Bachelorette ‘disabled her’ account due to cruel harassment.
‘She did it because that’s how much hate she’s getting from Bachelor fans who are spamming her with all kinds of rude and hateful things to say,’ the podcaster, 40, said in an Instagram video.
‘She is doing the hard work that needs to be done for change, and does not deserve to be silenced or ridiculed,’ Kirkconnell said of Lindsay, pictured in 2019. ‘If you are someone that has been cruel, find what fuels this hate in your heart, and fix it’
On Friday, Lindsay’s Higher Learning co-host, Van Lathan, revealed the 35-year-old reality star had ‘disabled her’ Instagram account due to cruel and hateful harassment
‘Rachel is not responsible for Chris Harrison, a 49-year-old man who can’t read the room in these 2021 times. She’s not responsible for that,’ Lathan fired off.
‘It’s not her job to make excuses or provide cover for somebody who doesn’t understand what the f*** triggers people in today’s world. It’s not. You’re going after the wrong person.’
He captioned the footage: ‘Leave Rachel the f*** alone. This harassment is going too far.’
Lathan, then, asked Harrison directly if he was ‘okay with people getting at Rachel to the point she can’t even exist on IG.’
Bachelor host Chris Harrison made the decision to step aside from the show after defending Kirkconnell which had led him to be accused of downplaying racism
After Lindsay’s interview with Harrison, he came under fire for downplaying Kirkconnell’s past behavior which included attending an antebellum party on a plantation in 2018 and liking images containing the Confederate Flag.
Kirkconnell has subsequently apologized for her previous actions.
‘At one point, I didn’t recognize how offensive and racist my actions were, but that doesn’t excuse them,’ she wrote on Instagram.
‘My age or when it happened does not excuse anything. They are not acceptable or okay in any sense. I was ignorant, but my ignorance was racist.’
Kirkconnell has subsequently apologized for her previous actions. ‘At one point, I didn’t recognize how offensive and racist my actions were, but that doesn’t excuse them,’ she wrote on Instagram