“It was not my intention to do blackface,” Pearl wrote, after Drag Race alums The Vixen and Silky Nutmeg Ganache reacted to the photo the season 7 finalist removed from Instagram.
After initially addressing the blackface controversy in an expiring Instagram Story, Pearl followed up her original comment with a lengthier statement on the social media site.
“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,” she wrote. “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. 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 also called the experience an “opportunity to grow from the experience and expand” herself creatively, and called the ordeal a “positive and safe space to learn and grow.”
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 7 finalist Pearl responded to a controversial photo she shared — and later deleted — that depicted her as a character with darkened skin.
“The character i posted this morning was not meant to resemble any other background other than my own. she’s platinum blonde/blue eyes & meant to have 2000’s britney-esque tan,” Pearl wrote Thursday on her Instagram Story. “I certainly didn’t mean to hurt anyone and will refrain from using any kind of tan at all when creating characters in the future. i’ve removed the post as to not continue to offend people.”
In addition to accusations of blackface from social media users in the comments section of other photos on her profile, fellow Drag Race alums The Vixen and Silky Nutmeg Ganache also addressed Pearl’s photo.
“When people carelessly play with blackface and using slurs etc I think the public outrage overshadows the private hurt that we go through. These daily reminders that this world isn’t safe, welcoming or sensitive to our feelings is overwhelming,” The Vixen, who previously competed on season 10, posted on social media, later adding: “White people paint their skin the shade of people who have to defend their skin shade and their surprised they have to defend their choice.”
Silky reposted Pearl’s photo and made reference to the season 7 competitor getting into a heated exchange with the show’s host in the Werk Room, “RuPaul should’ve just talked to her off camera cause now she mocking RuPaul in her younger years.”
Silky and her Canada’s Drag Race: Canada vs. the World sister Ra’Jah O’Hara previously recounted to EW how they dealt with their fellow competitor Rita Baga’s blackface controversy prior to joining the global spin-off.
“It’s an issue that she had already addressed prior to her getting on to season 1 of Canada’s Drag Race, so she addressed it then, but it was an incident that happened 10-plus years ago,” Ra’Jah said in a November 2022 interview. “As a strong, proud Black person, we always want people to recognize and realize the accountability that they need to take for actions that they’ve made, and I feel like when you apologize and actions come after an apology that let you know that it may have been a one-off when they were younger and maybe didn’t know better, but now that they know better, they’ve done better, and they’ve been better in the world. So I feel it was tacky for whoever to even bring it up in a situation to make it a current, relevant thing especially during the time we’d just gotten announced. I felt like it was very strategic on the part of how it came out and why it came out.”
