Riverdale's Lili Reinhart Apologizes For Racially Insensitive Costume Tweet

No matter how many times we seem to go over this, celebrities can't stop, won't stop with the tone-deaf Halloween costumes. (Who can forget Julianne Hough's notorious Crazy Eyes get-up? Or when Hilary Duff decided a pilgrim and a Native American chief would make for a good couple's costume?) And it seems like the first of the 2017 Halloween missteps is here. The center of controversy this time? Lili Reinhart, who plays Betty on Riverdale.

Yesterday, Reinhart tweeted an image of a person who appears to be covered head-to-toe in black paint. "Found my Halloween costume!! Inspired by the colour of my soul," she captioned the post.

Many fans immediately jumped to correct Reinhart for the tweet, saying that it could be construed as a form of blackface. While plenty of followers condemned the CW star, others brushed off the tweet as a joke with good intentions and poor execution. And others argued that it didn't represent blackface at all, saying it was meant to portray a demon, not a person of color.

Reinhart quickly deleted the tweet and issued an apology to fans in two follow-up posts. "I did not mean for my tweet to come off that way. I can see how it is interpreted as being insensitive, completely," she wrote. "I saw the pic on a Halloween Instagram and didn't think it would be interpreted as being racially insensitive. I apologize. Never meant any harm. I can see how it could've been misinterpreted."

With Halloween weekend approaching, we suggest you ask yourself a question Reinhart should've considered, "Could this be offensive?" If you're unsure, take a look at our flowchart to decide (celebs: you should bookmark that page as well). Or, you could always play it safe and just go as a giraffe, a clown, or one of the thousands of other non-problematic options.