Rachel Lindsay continues to pull away from the reality TV show Bachelor as she rolls down the curtain on her role as the first Black Bachelorette.
The influencer was the ABC and Warner Bros. TV franchise’s first-ever Black lead and first Black Bachelorette back in 2017. When she was cast as the first Black Bachelorette, it was long overdue but it was celebrated widely. This came only 15 years after the show had debuted and her casting was deemed as historic when it came to diversity.
However, Rachel noted something during her latest interview on Ziwe’s Showtime variety show. She talked to the Ziwe show about a trend with the three Black leads of the franchise so far. Including her, last year Bachelorette Tayshia Adams was cast and most recently, Matt James was cast. The former Bachelorette revealed how their endings have circled back to the casting.
She was asked how her thoughts on the fact that all three Black Bachelors ended up with partners who are not of colour. Rachel is married to her winner, Bryan Abasolo, Tayshia is engaged to winner Zac Clark and Matt is pursuing a relationship with winner Rachael Kirkconnell.
Rachel responded that she got more grace because she was the first and people were excited that a person of colour was in this role. However, she thinks that when the next person chose someone that wasn’t Black and then the next again, it is like they are not going to choose anybody Black. She said, “But then I think when the next person chose someone that wasn’t Black, and then by the time we got to the third one it was like, ‘you know what, they’re just not going to choose anybody that’s Black.’”
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“I also learned as I was going through my season that several of the Black men on my season didn’t date Black women.”
Rachel tries to highlight how unfairly people of colour are held to certain standards that their white counterparts are not. She deemed this as a problem that lies in how the franchise casts the show. The former Bachelorette said that there was a point when she broke down on camera and they used her tears for something else. She revealed she was getting upset at the selection of men of colour.
The media personality said, “I also learned as I was going through my season that several of the Black men on my season didn’t date Black women.” She revealed that she approached the producers about her contestants’ dating histories and they found it “interesting”.
“I said, ‘You think that’s interesting? That’s my life. I live that,’” said Lindsay of her response. “That’s why I’ve been speaking out [about the franchise] that you don’t need to just diversify your cast and your leads, you need to diversify the people behind the camera.”
Rachel has been constantly speaking out about the battles she faced both in front of the camera and behind the scenes. This includes the editing of her season as well. Her season was focused on the issues of race when a contestant was revealed to have a racist social media history. The attorney spoke about her experiences while providing commentary on Matt’s problematic season.
The latest season saw Chris Harrison taking a step back as host amid a racism controversy that became national headlines. Rachel kept pushing the franchise to address the systemic race issue that was exposed during the latest Bachelor season. She asked for more inclusivity among decision-makers.
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Rachel Quit Her Franchise Supported Podcast, Bachelor Happy Hour
This led to her announcing the exit from her franchise-supported podcast, Bachelor Happy Hour. She shared that it is no secret that she has been struggling. The media personality was referring to the personal toll that speaking about Matt’s season has taken. “And it’s been really, really hard for me lately. And a lot of things that we talk about on this podcast are also about taking care of yourself and finding your peace and protecting that peace and protecting your mental health. So, for me, I just feel like I’ve come to the end of doing the podcast.”
Elsewhere in her interview with Ziwe, she also said how she felt she was cast because she “checked all the boxes”. According to her, it was because of her qualifications and because she’s “a good Black girl”. However, she clarifies that she does not regret her experience but maybe Bachelor nation does. She said, “I’m not quite sure if they understood what they were going to get with me. I think maybe they thought, ‘She’ll play the game.’ Which I did, contractually. When that contract was up, I started to speak out on things that needed to change.”
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