Former The Bachelorette star Hannah Brown has issued her second apology for saying the N-word. In a lengthy video on her Instagram page, Hannah took responsibility for her actions.
“What I did was extremely serious and I didn’t want to continue is repeat this long history of white people not taking accountability when people of color, black people call them out on their behavior,” she said.
Hannah went on to recount the incident, stating that she was intoxicated when she uttered the racial slur during an Instagram live session two weeks ago. Hannah had been rapping along to the words of a popular song when she said it and she admitted to being aware that it was “not ok” to do so.
At the start of the clip, the former pageant queen said that she was hesitant at first to put out the video given that the nation is currently grappling with the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, an African American man who was recently killed during an arrest. She put aside her reservations, after realizing that she couldn’t let concerns about her timing stop her from doing the right thing.
The video racked up over 100,000 views in under an hour and more than 6,000 Instagram users have commented on it so far. In the comments, several users seemed very forgiving of the former Bachelorette.
“Let he who has never sinned cast the first stone at you,” one person wrote.
“We are all human. We all mess up. It doesn’t make the mess-ups okay,” another Instagram user added. “But YOU getting on and taking responsibility and owning your mistakes IS okay and IS the power of change. Thank you for setting the example.”
Hannah also explained why she took a break from social media after the release of her initial statement and apology. She said that at the time she knew that she had to “work on herself” before she addressed her fans once more.
“This is coming from the bottom of my heart, I sincerely don’t want to hurt anybody else,” she said.
Hannah added that she took the time to educate herself on racial issues and hired someone who could guide her through the learning process. The experience has been eye-opening, she said, since much of what she has now learned was completely new to her.
She went on to declare that she didn’t want to be “an ignorant white girl” anymore.
Fans also praised her for making the effort to learn more about racism in America with one commenter asking her to share a list of her resources with her followers.
