Scarlet - according to Scarlet - didn't intend to be hateful either. Last reason I heard was that she wanted to "get laughs" or "make people laugh". Doesn't really sound like something she would want, but even if she meant to "get an audience", the way she accomplished that goal was by painting and acting like a racial caricature, to the point where she practically had her own Minstrel Show with even more characters of various ethnicities.
However, I don't know about comparing Scarlets situation to Elliotts, especially when the point is to rank one above the other. Scarlets situation is very out in the open, she contradicts herself, she doesn't know at all how to make herself relatable... well, and she did blackface.
Elliott absolutely has her place in this discussion, even if it was just because a lot of people think the Internet is mad at poor Elliott because she said something cringy. She made a perfectly articulate statement, which unwittingly revealed some preconcieved notions she didn't even know she had. hat is representative of a hat was the issue at first, started with a ... questionable comment (we know the one), and handled herself poorly, when people actually did question that comment. Kinda like Scarlet is now. They both failed at their first apologies, because even though they went through the motions, addressed some minor offense, and got hung up on single words, but in the end left out the actual apology. Like the part where I normally would use my own words to describe what I did wrong, even if it's just to show that I understand the core issue.
whhoo
Like with Elliott when she apologized for choice of words, and threw in some alternatives she should have used instead of "aggressive". Half of which didn't really make sense as alternatives, another one being "not over the top". So that would change it to "But she did it so elegantly. It was not over the top, it was done with taste"
And so
Is it a) because they for real don't get it? Can they not make the connection between things you shouldn't say or do, and the reason why you shouldn't say or do them? Or that my subjectively good intentions are objectively for shit, when they get lost in translation between the thought and what came out. Or just flat out offend somebody, because for some reason my active vocabulary references racial stereotypes, gender and readily comments on other peoples physical features.
Or is it b) where they didn't properly apologize, because they truly think they did nothing wrong and don't feel sorry at all? I mean, other than for themselves.
This theory especially comes forward, when the person in question admitted to blackfacing, when more accurately they put together their version of a minstrel show.