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Playing favorites?: 'Bachelor' fans slam ABC for addressing Greer Blitzer's racism but not Erich Schwer's

In front of a studio audience, Greer Blitzer was given the spotlight and asked to address the criticism of her 'troubling' and 'disturbing' posts

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Only one episode into 'The Bachelor' Season 27, and Zach Shallcross' front-runner, Greer Blitzer, 24, of Texas, has already apologized for the franchise's newest racism incident. She apologized on Instagram Stories, saying she "used misguided arguments on Twitter to defend a student who dressed in Blackface as Tupac for Halloween." However, when ABC attempted to address the matter on national television through its network in order to make amends for the previous poor handling of the scandal, it backfired. Fans swiftly chastised the network for defending a previous participant in a similar situation while allowing Greer to bear the brunt of the criticism.

This one, like most Bachelor-related scandals, appears to have been festering online for some time. Months ago, a Reddit user shared images of the potential contestant defending another student who had used blackface, as well as an image of her wearing a Trump campaign sticker.

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Greer addresses the Blackface controversy

Greer was in the hot seat during one segment of the 'The Bachelor: Women Tell All' episode. After being asked about her separation from Zach, host Jesse Palmer brought up Greer's recent blackface scandal, which made news when 'The Bachelor' premiered this season. Greer faced backlash for her prior social media posts in which she praised a friend's decision to dress up in blackface as part of a Halloween costume. 'The Bachelor' franchise has been chastised in the past for failing to address race and controversy issues, as Jesse addressed in the episode.

"The truth is, as a franchise, we’ve done a very poor job in the past of addressing serious topics head-on," Jesse said to Greer. "We’re not going to miss that opportunity here tonight. I know you have given a subsequent apology on social media and online, but I do want to give you the opportunity to address this and share your experience with us…"

"What I failed to mention in my apology is that what happened was racist," Greer explains. "All I can do is be better now and try to do better in the future."

Greer was chastised for her earlier social media statements, as well as for defending a blackface photo. Greer, who won the first impression rose on night one, was seen in now-deleted Instagram photographs supporting Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election. She was also caught defending a blackface photo taken at an off-campus party that sparked outrage at Houston's Lamar High School.

Following the issue, Greer visited Dr. Banks, a professor and diversity/inclusion specialist. "She brought to my attention that it’s so important to be open-minded," Greer explained. "It’s so important to question things and ask, and not just do without thinking. Before you speak, think. Before you say something that could hurt someone else. And do your research. So I looked up lectures, really wanted to dive deep into the history of blackface and understand why it was wrong and why it was offensive. I realized it was a symbolism for dehumanizing the Black community, and so what I said was wrong. Defending that girl was racist, and I want to take that accountability. I don’t want to excuse it."

In fact, Dr. Banks was also in the Women Tell All audience, and Jesse gave her the opportunity to speak next. "Thanks for having me because I think it’s important to name and give voice when these sort of issues come up. When racism comes up, be willing to name it," advised Dr. Banks. "The reality is, we can’t nice our way out of racism. We can say the right thing, but what are we going to do? What actions are we going to take? So that’s why it’s really important to not just be performative, but to educate ourselves and be willing to understand the history behind actions and be willing to do something different."

'The double standard of this show is weird'

Accusing the network of picking a side when it came to addressing issues, a fan wrote, "Erich actually DID blackface and they said 0 words about it. There is something really strange about them choosing THIS racism scandal to do this with when they’ve let much much worse slide." Some fans believe, "Happy they made Greer address this, but wish they would have made Erich do the same thing last season! We all know if she was the final rose they wouldn’t have made her apologize on the show!" Calling out the network on their alleged misogyny, a fan wrote, "They’re addressing Greer’s racist past but ignored Erich’s blackface?!? Why pick and choose whose racism is worthy of discussion - it’s kind of giving misogyny, is it not?" A fourth person wrote, "And Erich gets a pass just bc he won?! Side eye."

A fan quipped, "Jesse: “we always wanna address these things on our show” Didn’t y’all completely ignore addressing Erich DOING BLACKFACE in high school????" Seeing the two vast difference in treatment of contestants, a fan wrote, "Me watching them put Greer (rightfully) on blast for defending black face yet when Erich Schwer WAS LITERALLY IN BLACK FACE THEY IGNORED IT COMPLETELY." Sad to see the women on the show not getting enough backing, a fan wrote, "Just odd to me that they let Greer address her defending blackface but didn’t let Erich talk about doing actual blackface? Interesting how they protect the men and rarely the women on this show." Calling out the double standard of the show, a fan tweeted, "Can we get Erich to go to some DEI training too, please? The double standard of this show is weird."

'The Bachelor' Season 27 airs every Monday at 8 pm ET/7 pm CT only on ABC.

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