Not his time? Shep Rose opened up about courting controversy yet avoiding being ostracized from public life.
“I consider myself a kind person. I’m not out for blood,” the Southern Charm star, 40, exclusively told Us Weekly while promoting his book, Average Expectations: Lessons in Lowering the Bar. “I’m smart enough to know to stay away from certain situations. And I don’t know. It’s easy. I mean, here’s the thing: The far left is too quick to cancel, the far right is too quick not to. Like, you can get away with anything and say anything.”
Rose emphasized his efforts to change when he realizes he is in the wrong: “I think it’s important that we — if we’re going to evolve or whatever, as a society — if [there is] a word that is inflammatory and not very nice, don’t use it. It’s not that hard, you know, and it’s not, like, cultural and it’s not, like, a punitive for the user. Just use other words and consider someone else’s feelings. So I’m trying to do that.”
However, the reality star acknowledged there is a learning curve. “It’s not easy because, like I said in the book, I’ve used all sorts of words that would get me in big, big trouble in the past. I think almost everyone has. I mean, besides, like, Mother Teresa,” he said. “I’ve taken them out of my vocabulary, so to speak, and so that’s kind of the thing. And, you know, the stubborn refusal to change or evolve doesn’t make any sense to me because we should all want to do that.”
Rose, who attended the University of Georgia and was in a fraternity during college, then addressed the controversy surrounding Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell. The 24-year-old graphic designer has apologized for going to an antebellum-themed sorority party in college.
“I don’t think they do it at University of Georgia anymore. I hope the hell they don’t, but they did in the early 2000s, in the late ‘90s. There was these big ornate, guys dressed up like soldiers and stuff like that,” he told Us. “I thought back then it was a little much. Honestly, I can’t believe in 2017 they’re doing it. That surprised me. So I know everything. I mean, I know, yeah. I know what that is all about, that controversy that hit the airwaves, which I don’t know what I think of it honestly. I’m like, OK, look, she’s from north Georgia. I mean, you know, yeah. The South, you’re going to be in situations where maybe you don’t agree with a whole hell of a lot of people in that setting. So yeah, you got to be careful.”
For more on Rose and his book, watch the video above and pick up the latest issue of Us Weekly, on newsstands now!
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
