RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under is months away from hitting out screens, yet its already been embroiled in controversy due to the racist actions of not one, but two of its contestants.
Perth-based entertainer Scarlet Adams came under fire after Felicia Foxx, an Aboriginal drag queen, shared photos on social media of Adams in various insensitive costumes, including a Native American headdress and burqa.
One photo shows Adams in blackface with two teeth blacked out, wearing an Aboriginal flag shirt. It was taken 26 January 2012 on Invasion Day.
“I apologise in advance as some of this content can be distressing, I deeply feel for every single culture that is disrespected in these pictures,” Foxx began her post.
“It makes me sick to my core to see numerous people in the LGBT+ community who are profiting off of making a mockery and disrespecting peoples cultures. It makes me furious seeing my culture being dismantled, disregarded and shat on.”
She went on to say: “My People & Our Culture Is Not A Joke For Any One Especially Privileged Dominating Cultures To Make A Mockery Out Of Us!”
Adams directly responded to Foxx on the post, writing: “Felicia, I’m so sorry you had to see this and I feel awful, I have so much respect for you. I have addressed this a few times. It’s on my Instagram at the very top under highlights.
“It’s a past I’m very not proud of and wish I could go back and not do. I have spent my career trying to right these wrongs from my teenage years. And will continue to strive to be a better person and ally for all marginalised communities.”
Adams added: “I’m not that person anymore. I am sorry.”
She also reposted an apology she made last year, in which she told her followers: “There is no way to sugar-coat it, when I was a teenager roughly 8 years ago I performed in blackface/cultural appropriation. I was young and I was ignorant.
“I am no longer that person. I know I will never understand what it’s like to be a person of colour, but I have been hurt before and to think that I made someone else feel that way is an unfathomable feeling.”
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The post RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under contestants apologise for racist pasts appeared first on GAY TIMES.
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