Alison Roman acknowledges role of ‘white privilege’ in Chrissy Teigen comments
Alison Roman doubled down on her apology to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo, noting that her comments came from a place of insecurity and white privilege.
“I need to formally apologize to Chrissy Teigen and Marie Kondo. I used their names disparagingly to try and distinguish myself, which I absolutely do not have an excuse for,” Roman tweeted on Monday. “It was stupid, careless, and insensitive. I need to learn, and respect, the difference between being unfiltered and honest vs. being uneducated and flippant.”
She noted that Teigen and Kondo have worked extremely hard to get to where they are and “deserve better than my tone-deaf remarks.”
The New York Times food columnist then went on to explain that her words came from her own insecurities with her own career.
“Why couldn’t I express myself without tearing someone down? I definitely could have, and I’m embarrassed I didn’t,” she wrote. “Among the many uncomfortable things I’ve begun to processing is the knowledge that my comments were rooted in my own insecurity. My inability to appreciate my own success without comparing myself to and knocking down others — in this case, two accomplished women — is something I recognize I most definitely struggle with, and am working to fix. I don’t want to be a person like that.”
The “Nothing Fancy” author noted that her white privilege was part of the problem.
“I’m not the victim here, and my insecurities don’t excuse this behavior. I’m a white woman who has and will continue to benefit from white privilege and I recognize that makes what I said even more inexcusable and hurtful,” she wrote. “The fact that it didn’t occur to me that I had singled out two Asian women is one hundred percent a function of my privilege (being blind to racial insensitivities is a discriminatory luxury).”
Admitting she “messed up,” Roman added, “I know that our culture frequently goes after women, especially women of color, and I’m ashamed to have contributed to that. I want to lift up and support women of color; my actions indicated the opposite.”
“I need to learn from this, and I’m going to use it as motivation to do and be better,” she said.
Last week Roman was slammed for framing Teigen as a sell-out and Kondo as a hypocrite.
Teigen came forward, sharing how hurt she was, and Roman then publicly apologized.
Since then, Teigen announced she was taking a break from Twitter.
Kondo has not publicly commented on Roman’s criticism.
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