What Rachel Lindsay Has to Say About the First Black Bachelor

Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay went on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen and explained how she felt about The Bachelor announcing Matt James as the first Black Bachelor, saying she “hated the timing”.

What We Know:

• On Watch What Happens Live, former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay talks about how she was excited to hear that Matt James is the first Black Bachelor but she doesn’t feel that the timing of the announcement was right.
• “I’m excited that there’s a Black Bachelor, I just want to say that. But I hated the timing of it because it does seem like a reaction to what is happening in our country,” she said, referencing the death of George Floyd. “Did a man have to die in such a public way on a national stage for you to say now is the time for us to have a Black Bachelor? That’s what I hate; it’s taking away from this moment.”
• After the James announcement, Lindsay tweeted The Bachelor, calling them to “address the systemic racism within the franchise”.

I would be remiss to not point out that based on the current climate, it feels like a knee-jerk reaction and a result of societal pressure. This announcement, without any further commitments regarding diversity, sweepingly brushes deeper issues under the rug .

— Rachel Lindsay (@TheRachLindsay) June 12, 2020

• “What I wanted was some acknowledgment and some recognition that they’ve been wrong and part of the problem and that they’re going to vow to take the necessary changes to bring diversity internally into more contestants of color on the show,” she said.
• According to Lindsay, the executive producers reached out to her and, on June 12, they issued a statement announcing that there will be changes made to add more diversity.
• “We acknowledge our responsibility for the lack of representation of people of color on our franchise and pledge to make significant changes to address this issue moving forward,” the statement read. “We are taking positive steps to expand diversity in our cast, in our staff, and most importantly, in the relationships that we show on television. We can and will do better to reflect the world around us and show all of its beautiful love stories.”

Matt James was originally cast for Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette but the coronavirus postponed it. However, it was recently announced that Crawley’s season will begin filming in July and James’ season will go into production at the end of September.