Drag Race Down Under stars were clueless about Scarlet Adams’ blackface photos until episode filmed

RuPaul’s Drag Race Down Under contestants had no idea about Scarlet Adams using blackface in the past and didn’t know RuPaul was going to address the controversy on the main stage.

In the latest episode of the show, Scarlet was called out for wearing blackface, brownface and mocking multiple ethnicities in her old routines in unearthed photos.

RuPaul told the drag queen that this would ‘be a lesson in humility and accountability’ and prayed that ‘all of us can learn and grow from our mistakes.’

Commenting on the scenes at hand, latest eliminated queen Etcetera Etcetera insisted they weren’t staged or rehearsed.

‘We didn’t know about Scarlet going into the show, so we had no idea,’ they told Metro.co.uk.

‘When Scarlet brought it up in the workroom that was the first time I had heard about it. Everything flowed organically from then, it wasn’t a manufactured conversation. It wasn’t something we knew was coming so we dealt with it in real-time.’

Etcetera said that they believe the opinion of the remaining Drag Race Down Under contestants, who are all white, is irrelevant.

‘I think this conversation should be framed around how people of colour reacted to that moment, what their opinions of Scarlet are and her actions after the show and what she should do as reparations for her actions,’ they continued.

‘Also, the wider systemic issues of racism within the drag and queer community.

‘While Scarlet did do racist things, it stems from a wider systemic issue of racism. Why did the clubs that booked her allow that to keep happening? Why did audiences go along and clap every week? Why did other queens backstage allow her to go on like that?’

Etcetera added: ‘I think those kinds of conversations are things we should be looking in to. Less so of Scarlet as an individual, more so of what were the wider issues that made this happen.’

Louder for the people at the back!

Scarlet expressed regret over using blackface and explained herself to Ru, the judges and the remaining contestants.

‘I can’t deny that that happened,’ she said. ‘As a dumb, ignorant teenager, I made some mistakes that I’m really not proud of and every day, I regret those decisions.

‘I regret the fact that I used my platform as a performer to ridicule people who have faced systemic racism for hundreds of years and I’m so ashamed of the person I once was. I’m really sorry to you and to everyone that I have hurt.’

Drag Race Down Under airs every Sunday on BBC iPlayer.