“I know I’ve said highly problematic, highly hurtful things in the past,” Taylor Nolan, 27, said at the start of her lengthy apology video, posted to Instagram on Sunday (Feb. 28.) Over the weekend, fans on Reddit had dug up some tweets from 2011 and 2012 where a teenage Taylor insulted different ethnic groups like Jews, Asians, and Indians. She also made “fat phobic” comments in the tweets. In the thirty-minute video, Taylor explained that she engaged in this behavior online because she “hated myself” and “hated the Blackness inside me because of the racism I…experienced.” Taylor, who is biracial, “was trying to protect myself by being as close to Whiteness because ‘white is right.’ Because my blackness, what I was told, was wrong.”
“I know what folks want me to feel in this is shame,” she said. “And I want to be clear here, those things were wrong. Those tweets were wrong. Those tweets were hurtful. Those tweets were f-cked up.” She also went into detail in the video’s caption. “My tweets from ten years ago are shitty, they suck, they were wrong, and are hurtful. I want to be clear that they don’t take away from the work I do today, they are literally how I got here to doing this work. If you’re gonna take the time and energy to scroll through ten years of my tweets then please take your time to listen to this video.”
“I never deleted those tweets for a reason because they’ve been a part of my ~journey~ since way before going The Bachelor. I didn’t need anyone to call those things out to me to know they were wrong, I’ve been doing that work on my own for the last ten years, and it’s the same work I do today and the same work I will continue doing for the rest of my life. To my fellow BIPOC community and the other folks who I harmed in those tweets, I see you, I hope you see me, we are in this together, and I’m sorry I didn’t always stand with you. I’m sorry I centered my whiteness and the whiteness around me. I’m sorry I wasn’t better then, but I am here now and will always be.”
During the video, Taylor claimed that fans dug up these videos because she “upset White supremacy,” and this was a retaliatory gesture. Taylor and many other Bachelor alums have condemned Bachelor host Chris Harrison following his comments about Bachelor contestant Rachel Kirkconnel and her resurfaced social media. In old posts from 2018, Rachel engaged in apparent racist behavior (including wearing Native American attire as a costume, and attending an Antebellum South-themed party.) Chris defended her – “I saw a picture of her at a sorority party five years ago, and that’s it” – which resulted in a backlash so fevered that ultimately, Chris chose to “step aside” from his duties.
“To the folks actually out to get me, who can’t stand to look at their own racism, who hate the things I’m saying about racism and white supremacy…those tweets do not invalidate my work today, and I will always be open to hearing how to do better from my BIPOC counterparts,” Taylor said in her statement. “I hope you can consider giving me some of ~grace~ you push so hard for white bachelor alum to receive for things they have in the recent past or present time said and done that were harmful…for the work I’ve been doing the last ten years and currently to unpack internalized racism and fight against things like fat phobia and white supremacy.”