Matthew James Lent, a drag performer who shot to fame on Ru Paul’s Drag Race under the name “Pearl,” has been accused of wearing blackface in an image posted to Instagram this week.
Lent had extremely large inflated-looking lips, bleached-blonde hair, a pink tracksuit, and dark brown makeup on in the images.
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TMZ reports, “Fans jumped on her almost immediately, calling the look tone-deaf and comparing it to blackface. One wrote, ‘So y’all just gonna stay silent while Pearl from RuPaul’s Drag race posts photos of themself in Blackface, all the while other non-Black queens were hyping it up like it wasn’t clearly blackface?’”
“The character i posted this morning was not meant to resemble any other background other than my own. she’s platinum blonde/blue eyes & meant to have 2000’s britney-esque tan,” Lent wrote Thursday on his Instagram Story.
“I certainly didn’t mean to hurt anyone and will refrain from using any kind of tan at all when creating characters in the future. i’ve removed