Ellie Kemper has finally addressed the controversy that had her name trending on Twitter last week. In an Instagram post today, the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt star acknowledged that when she was 19, she participated in a debutante ball held by the Veiled Prophet Organization. She also acknowledged the St. Louis organization’s “unquestionably racist, sexist, and elitist past” and apologized for her involvement.
“I was not aware of this history at the time,” Kemper wrote, “but ignorance is no excuse. I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved.”
The controversy erupted on Memorial Day, when a Twitter user posted a 1999 newspaper article announcing that Kemper had been crowned the “Queen of Love and Beauty” at that year’s Veiled Prophet Ball. The same user erroneously equated the organization with the Klu Klux Klan, and the internet took over from there, with some dubbing Kemper the “KKK Princess.”
Of course, while the Veiled Prophet may not literally be associated with the Klan, others have detailed its role in bolstering and maintaining the white hegemony of St. Louis’s wealthy upper class. The organization was co-founded in 1878 by a former Confederate officer in response to calls for social and economic justice. It did not admit Black members until 1979, and the ball would have been desegregated for two decades prior to Kemper’s participation in 1999.
A fancy event put on by our local KKK, of which Ellie Kemper was once the Queen of Love and Beauty https://t.co/6xgwa788Ck
— Thee Hannah (@hannastasia) May 31, 2021
“I unequivocally deplore, denounce, and reject white supremacy,” Kemper, who comes from a wealthy Missouri family, wrote in her Instagram post. “At the same time, I acknowledge that because of my race and my privilege, I am the beneficiary of a system that has dispensed unequal justice and unequal rewards.”
She’s also frank about her desire to avoid knee-jerk reactions to internet criticism: “There is a very natural temptation, when you become the subject of internet criticism, to tell yourself that your detractors are all wrong,” she reflects. “But at some point last week, I realized that a lot of the forces behind the criticism are forces that I’ve spent my life supporting and agreeing with.”
“I believe strongly in the values of kindness, integrity, and inclusiveness,” she continues. “If my experience is an indication that organizations and institutions with pasts that fall short of these beliefs should be held to account, then I have to see this experience in a positive light.”
