World News – USA – Kathryn Dennis addresses the social media controversy: « I take responsibility »

Kathryn Dennis addresses the emoji controversy that broke out in the Southern Charm episode on Jan.. December was presented.

In an interview with The Daily Dish, Kathryn spoke about the controversial message she sent to a black radio host earlier this year that included the use of a monkey emoji.

In the episode of Southern Charm from Jan.. On December 31st, Kathryn explained the series of events: « My boyfriend had a Trump parade party and I’m not political. I don’t like Trump. I don’t like anyone. But they bullied her. That woman beat up my friend Katie so I started answering. I don’t even remember what I said, but I know the monkey emoji came up. . . She heard every message I sent . . . I thought this is how seriously I take the monkey emoji that I imagine [squat] because it looks funny and awkward and that’s my sense of humor and now I’m apparently racist. « 

But in a phone interview with The Daily Dish this week, Kathryn said that she “100 percent” understands why her message caused such a strong reaction because of the racist implications: “I think I made a mistake and it’s one that anyone could do. And I take responsibility and I am glad that honestly it happened in public because I think it happened for a reason and I think that I now have a platform where I can change instead of myself to hide and be defeated.  » She said.

On Thursday’s episode, Leva Bonaparte says Kathryn reached out to her after the incident, which sparked an emotional discussion between Leva, Danni Baird, and several of their friends about the history of racial injustice, including how monuments like that are from Kathryn’s relative John C. . Calhoun triggers for blacks and other minorities. They also discuss the racial and social settlement that is happening both in Charleston and across the country amid the Black Lives Matter movement.

At the time of the filming of the episode, Kathryn faced a backlash, including being fired from her position with Gwynn. She also did not attend the event about the removal of the Calhoun statue shown below.

« I wanted to be there [removing the statue] but obviously I didn’t go because the death threats are pretty intense, » Kathryn explained this week. « I don’t think I would have been well received. I want to say that I support [removing]. . « 

She also said, « I’m really sorry I made such a misjudgment and I am all of the things you want to say. Yes you can call me ignorant. You can call me privileged. You can call me selfish, but I am not racist. At that moment I said nothing racially. I made a mistake. I said something that I now know is insensitive – I’ll own that. But I will not own anything that is not true, and that means I said something intentionally racist. « 

Kathryn realized that she had moved away from the experience of having learned a lesson. « I will not get involved in anything that has nothing to do with me. I will take responsibility for myself and that’s it – responsibility for myself as a person and as a mother and role model for my children. It was a big eye opener in many ways and it’s very difficult to learn all of these lessons from the life of a show in public because it gets blown up, but I do my best as a mom not to let my kids go let through something because of all of this. I’m just trying to make sure that I’m purposely being super proactive on my part and learning. « 

She continued, « I think I have learned that I have so much more to learn and that life is an everlasting lesson. Ever since the situation happened, I’ve been researching, digging, just to find out. « 

« I’ve learned that I need to be more proactive, especially the fact that I have a middle name and last name that have a political implication and an undertone that isn’t that good [. . . ] That is Mediterranean charm, we all have a story, not just me. We may not be as aware of this as people may think and that is because neither of us really talk about it because it is taboo to talk about it. The show is really the first platform that each of us talked about it on, otherwise it was some kind of history lesson [. . . ] Neither of us has ever spoken about our family history, so we never really understood much about it. « 

« My purpose in life has to come from here somehow. I just don’t know exactly what it is yet. It must be some kind of accident or divine intervention that all of this happened at the exact time our climate in the world was culturally what it was. I still think it will lead me on a very different path. « 

After the controversy, she focused on her two children, Kensington and St. . Julien and is now thinking about the possibility of going back to school. She also said she apologized to the radio host and that they have not spoken since.

Kathryn concluded, « I just want people to know that I am human. I made a mistake. I’m really sorry for someone I hurt in this moment and every moment of it. « 

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Southern charm, Shep Rose, Austen Kroll, Bravo, Kathryn Dennis, Craig Conover