Sydney Responded to Those Accusations That She Lied to Peter About Being Bullied
The Bachelor's Sydney Hightower has been accused of lying about being bullied in high school.
Sydney responded to the accusations on Twitter, saying "Winning a pageant based off of outer beauty does not take away the racial bullying, and isolation I’ve been through."
Okay, so. Remember Monday night's 3-hour episode of The Bachelor? How could you forget! But as a reminder, Sydney Hightower opened up to Peter Weber about how she'd been bullied for being biracial in high school. And it took about five seconds for an old classmate to hop on Twitter with copies of their yearbook, which show Sydney posing as one of the school's "Top 5 Beauties."
To be clear, it's entirely possible for someone to be bullied while winning a beauty pageant. These things are not mutually exclusive, and any attempt to erase Sydney's experience with racism is super problematic and awful. Understandably, she hit Twitter to defend herself, writing "Feels ridiculous I even have to address this. But correct I did win a beauty pageant my senior year of high school. That was voted for by 5 judges. Not by my peers. Winning a pageant based off of outer beauty does not take away the racial bullying, and isolation I’ve been through."
Feels ridiculous I even have to address this.But correct I did win a beauty pageant my senior year of highschool.That was voted for by 5 judges.Not by my peers.Winning a pageant based off of outer beauty does not take away the racial bullying,and isolation I’ve been through.
— Sydney Hightower (@sydhightower) February 4, 2020
She continued, "I was also on the cheer team in middle school and in many clubs in high school. You’ll do anything you can to fit in, and I tried. I won pageants because of my 'looks' and I was in clubs because I wanted a scholarship to get into college. Not because I was accepted by my peers. Any one from my high school want to pull out the videos of girls stuffing my locker with Oreo cookies, vandalizing my home, shoving me in the hall ways? Teachers literally referring to me as a halfbreed? Calling my mother the worst names I’ve ever heard in my life? I doubt that."
I was also on the cheer team in middle school and in many clubs in highschool. You’ll do anything you can to fit in, and I tried. I won pageants because of my “looks” and I was in clubs because I wanted a scholarship to get into college . Not because I was accepted by my peers.
— Sydney Hightower (@sydhightower) February 4, 2020
Any one from my highschool want to pull out the videos of girls stuffing my locker with Oreo cookies , vandalizing my home, shoving me in the hall ways? Teachers literally referring to me as a halfbreed? Calling my mother the worst names I’ve ever heard in my life? I doubt that.
— Sydney Hightower (@sydhightower) February 4, 2020
FYI, Sydney also responded directly to the former classmate who @-ed her, and shared some of the truly awful racist DMs she's been getting. Here's to hoping the internet gets it together ASAP.
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