'The Bachelor's Greer Blitzer Apologizes for Defending Blackface Comments in Old Tweets

Just hours after the Season 27 premiere of The Bachelor, one of the leading man's frontrunners faced allegations of racism.

Although the coveted first impression rose is a huge deal, it's rarely a good thing to receive because it immediately puts a target on your back. We're not just talking about the other women — we're talking about the internet sleuths as well. They will uncover everything, and they did just that with Greer Blitzer.

We all watched as the 24-year-old medical sales rep received Zach's first impression rose in Season 27 premiere — some fans cheered; others, not so much. Why is that? Well, the episode had barely finished when The U.S. Sun reported about old tweets from Greer defending a person in Blackface — yikes.

She has since addressed and apologized for the tweets on social media and on the Women Tell All special. Stick around as we break down the controversy.

In 2016, a student at Lamar High School in Houston, Texas — the high school Greer attended — got in trouble for showing up to a Halloween party in Blackface while dressed as Tupac. Greer took to Twitter to defend the person in since-deleted tweets, calling what happened dumb, but not racist and saying, "She did not paint herself black because she felt superior to black ppl."

Another tweet said, "The students involved didn't even know what blackface was... it wasn't an intentional racist act."

In response to the tweets being revealed, Greer posted an apology to her Instagram story, writing:

"The journey to love is filled with lessons and these lessons are also made on our journey of growth. In my past, I have made some uneducated, ignorant and frankly wrong, comments on my social media accounts. In particular, in 2016, I used misguided arguments on Twitter to defend a student who dressed in Blackface as Tupac for Halloween."

Greer's apology continued:

"I am deeply sorry to those I have hurt, especially those within the Black community, not because these screenshots have resurfaced but because I ever shared those harmful opinions at all. Time and age do not excuse my actions, but this is not a reflection of who I am today. I do not stand by or condone the damaging opinions and behaviors I shared during that stage of my life and will forever regret making those offensive remarks."

Although Greer previously spoke out with a public apology for her insensitive tweets, she also addressed them on the March 14 Women Tell All special.

"This acquaintance of mine that I knew performing Blackface was racist, me defending it was racist, my ignorance was racist, and I’m just so ashamed," Greer told host Jesse Palmer on the special. "I’m just deeply sorry that I hurt the Black community. I can’t go back in time. All I can do is try to be better now and try to do better in my future."

Greer continued and shared that she wanted to "dive deep into the history of Blackface" to understand its history and that, as a result, she was able to better understand how wrong and offensive she was in defending those tweets.

New episodes of The Bachelor air Mondays at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.