Actress Ellie Kemper has apologized for participating in a debutante ball hosted by a St. Louis organization that she now says had "an unquestionably racist, sexist and elitist past."
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Source: Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
I wouldn t call myself a fan of actress Ellie Kemper, per se, but I enjoyed her work in
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Bridesmaids. When the recent controversy emerged, related to something she d done back in 1999, a quick perusal of the facts made clear that some of the incredibly ungenerous and hyperbolic headlines – linking her to segregation, the KKK, and the like – bore little resemblance to the facts of the case. The facts are these: As a 19-year-old college student and the daughter of a prominent banker, Kemper was crowned the winner of an annual debutante ball in the St. Louis area. The organization that put on the event has a racist past, but had integrated decades prior to Kemper s involvement. Here is how USA Today describes the gala in question:
By Rachel Rice
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS â Ellie Kemper, âUnbreakable Kimmy Schmidtâ TV star and St. Louis native, released a statement Monday apologizing for participating in a debutante ball held by the Veiled Prophet Organization in 1999.
âI want to apologize to the people Iâve disappointed, and promise that moving forward I will listen, continue to educate myself, and use my privilege in support of the better society I think weâre capable of becoming,â Kemper, 41, said on Instagram.
Twitter last week turned its outrage to Kemper after it appears someone arbitrarily tweeted about a 2014 article in The Atlantic which noted that Kemper was named âQueen of Love and Beautyâ at the Veiled Prophet Ball when she was 19. Kemper graduated from John Burroughs School and was a Princeton University student when she was crowned.