Rachel Griffiths issued an apology after flaunting her fresh manicure on social media as “America is burning and people are dying” amid the George Floyd protests and the COVID-19 outbreak.
The 51-year-old Six Feet Under and Brothers and Sisters alum snapped a photo of her hand while at the nail salon and posted it on Instagram. In the pic, followers get a look at her light pink nails and her massive rock.
“Shallow I know,” she captioned the photo. “America is burning people are dying … but still it just seems easier on the soul to watch all this happening with beautiful nails.”
“And judging by the line of desperate ladies I am not alone,” she continued. “Shallow people we are but I need to share this important covid update. The manicurists are open!!! Tip generously as they had had not income since COVID lockdown.”
Unsurprisingly, the Internet responded in outrage. “I am continually floored by celebrities who write wildly inappropriate and tone deaf statements and share it online,” said a Twitter user. “Rachel Griffith’s post about her nails, featuring a ring with a stone the size of every semi-precious gemstone ring I’ve ever own combined, IS A CLANGER.”
Griffiths has since deleted the post and issued an apology on Tuesday, June 3.
“The last few days have been wrenching,” she began the lengthy caption. “My post early today leant away from that pain but I understand in doing so it pained others who can’t look away from what’s happening — can’t turn off and check out because it is their lives — their brothers theirs sisters their children. And it’s not over ‘there.’ This our country’s stain also.”
She continued, “I did not intend to trivialise just escape it. But that I understand is part of the problem. I am sorry. I am sorry that I got this so wrong today. I am sorry that I abdicated any meaningful sense making of what is happening this week and has been happening for centuries.”
“Thank you to the people who have called me out,” she concluded. “I have a long way to go to truly understand my white bitch privilege.”
But her apology didn’t stop followers from articulating their disappointment. “Yep it was a really shitty post,” wrote an Instagram user. ‘It mentioned ‘current events’ then flaunted your privilege and ability to have nothing to do with/to be untouched by such ‘current events.'”
“Come on, you knew better,” another person wrote. “You are the Executive Producer and lead actress in a prime-time indigenous ABC Australia drama, about black deaths in custody, working alongside a prominent indigenous production company. You knew. You even said in the post ‘this is shallow…’, so why did you post it anyway? The spirit in which it was intended was pure ignorant white privilege.”
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