'RuPaul's Drag Race' Alum Pearl Apologizes After Being Accused of Blackface

justjared.com:

Pearl is responding after being accused of blackface. On Thursday (August 10), the 32-year-old RuPaul’s Drag Race season seven alum posted a photo of herself in a pink outfit with a big, blonde wig, puffed up lips and her skin darkened.

After initially sharing the photo, many accused Pearl of blackface. Later that day, Pearl deleted the photo and then apologized. Keep reading to find out more… “Hello, not trying to drag this out but I’d like to address the drag character I posted this morning.

It was not my intention to do blackface, I thought the concept of the character would be clear to anyone who saw it, which was ignorant on my part, for which I am sorry,” Pearl wrote on Instagram. “Just to be clear, every aspect of the character was inspired by Caucasian people, there was no black-influence going on in my mind during the time of conception,” Pearl continued. “But now I see the people that inspired the character are/have been problematic, and by dressing up and parodying as them, I to am contributing to the issue in its own way, something I hadn’t thought of and don’t want to contribute to.” Pearl concluded, “With that being said, I’ve felt creatively stumped for a while and it may be due to the fact that some of these characters are kind of tired and just aren’t aging well, so I’m going to look at this as an opportunity to grow from the experience and expand myself creatively.

If anyone would like me to clear anything else up, I’m happy to respond here. hopefully this can be a positive and safe space to learn and grow.