"I stand with you": Jack Vigden apologises for racist comments
The Voice star Jack Vidgen has used Instagram to apologise for making “racist” comments in the past.
Vidgen pledged his support for the Black Lives Matter movement and admitted that he was once “ignorant and uneducated” about systemic racism.
He also touched on how being pulled up for a racist comment felt like an attack.
“It was a hard pill to swallow when I started being educated about racism and started realising that even though I didn't think I was racist in any way, a lot of things I said and also didn't say were racist,” he wrote.
“I was 19 when a friend pulled me up on something I said. Looking back now, I can't believe it came out of my mouth, but at the time I was so ignorant and uneducated, I didn't think it was racist or prejudice.”
He also urged his followers to educate themselves about the Black Lives Matter movement.
“If you don’t understand/agree with myself and millions of people posting about how BLACK LIVES DO MATTER, please educate yourself. Research. Google. Read books. Talk to friends who you know are anti-racist because I know being told you’re racist or something you say is racist can feel like an attack, but looking back you’ll be so grateful for that educational source.”
Vidgen said that he was still learning about “racism and how ingrained it is in society”.
“I'm not going to pretend to even begin to understand how people of colour are feeling right now and have always felt but I just want to say I love you and I stand with you,” he concluded.
Vidgen’s post comes after protests and riots take over the U.S after George Floyd, an unarmed black man, died in Minneapolis after a white police officer pressed his knee against his neck for eight minutes.