The Bachelorette: Lee Garrett’s offensive Twitter account draws ire

Lee Garrett

Consider this to be another example of why reality shows really need to properly vet social media for their contestants. Lee Garrett, a contestant on this season of The Bachelorette hyped up by the show already for being a firebrand of controversy, is now facing controversy over some offensive, horrific things said on his Twitter account.

His account has been since set to private, but his timeline featured shocking comments on everything from Black Lives Matter to comparing the Ku Klux Klan to the NAACP. If you think for a moment about Lee being on the show to compete for Rachel Lindsay (the first black star in the franchise’s history), it should be apparent immediately why this is a problem.

Is it a pain in the butt to hire some intern to go through all of your prospective contestant’s social-media history to make sure that they’re not some sort of louse? Probably, but it’s necessary for reasons like this and what we’ve seen multiple times on Big Brother — get out in front of the controversy as opposed to allowing the controversy to control you. If you are able to do that, then odds are you’ll have a much better chance of controlling the narrative surrounding the show. They now have to explain having good intentions for this show when there is someone on it with a history of saying inappropriate things.

While Garrett seems to be hiding now behind his social media, the one thing that may be done with this in the future by the show to correct some of their mistakes is to use some platforms in the future to explain how racism still clearly exists in America. For example, there is The Men Tell All taping a little later this summer, and if Lee is there, you almost certainly have to think that he will be put on blast by some of the other people, Rachel, and even host Chris Harrison. This is a guy who is going to have to face a lot of anger over what he’s done, and it may not be all that easy for him to explain himself on the other side when his words are already out there and screenshotted all across the world.

How in the world did Lee Garrett get on this show? We want to know your thoughts on the subject below!

Meanwhile, head over here to get some further news when it comes to Monday night’s new Bachelorette episode. (Photo: ABC.)

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