We (Susan and Emily) have decided to not finish recapping this season of The Bachelor. We feel like we should explain.
If you’ve been following our recaps or following the Bachelor franchise world at all, you’re probably pretty up-to-date on the ongoing racism problems the show and its host are propagating. As the franchise digs itself deeper into a hole and has failed to protect or defend Rachel Lindsay, Matt James, or any BIPOC contestants, we felt compelled to say something. But first, let’s make one thing clear: The racism on this show is not new. Ali Barthwell, one of our favorite recappers, laid it out plainly a few weeks ago:
And this season, which by all appearances should have been historic—and a chance to move toward some real racial progress on the show—has in fact been the opposite. While they cast a Black lead and more contestants of color than ever before, the franchise failed to actually create a safe and equitable environment for those people. On top of that, we know that the show has cut out conversations wherein Matt engaged with contestants about his experiences as a Black man and important racial issues, like the opportunity gap and achievement gap. So on top of not protecting the contestants of color and their Black lead, they’ve also downplayed Matt’s Blackness and deprived us of hearing him and his contestants talk about it.
But here is where we are now: Rachel Lindsay, who remained composed while Chris Harrison said harmful thing after harmful thing in his interview with her, has deactivated her Instagram account because of the hateful—and yes, racist—harassment she has received in the past few weeks. And while many former contestants have made public statements of support for Rachel, the franchise itself—and Chris Harrison—has yet again failed to do the right thing.
It has become clear to us that The Bachelor is not a safe space for people of color, and it never has been. We were uneasy about continuing to recap the season following the initial controversy with Rachael Kirkconnell. Ultimately, at that point, we continued to recap the show because we want to support Matt James, the show’s first male lead of color, and we want to support his journey to find love. As much as we have roasted Matt in past recaps, we really do want the best for him and we want his journey to be successful. But as we get closer and closer to the end of this season, it becomes more and more obvious that this show is not interested in fostering an environment for Matt—or for any contestants of color—that is supportive.
In 2020, when Black Lives Matter protests were on the rise and it became clear that The Bachelor could no longer ignore its racism problem, they said they were going to put in the work and make changes. What they did was hire Matt James as their lead, essentially forcing a person of color to once again do all of the emotional labor for them. Rather than truly addressing the systemic racism that’s inherent in this show, The Bachelor used Matt James as a band-aid. We were afraid that was what was happening when Matt James was initially announced as The Bachelor, but we were hoping this would be just the beginning of a move in the right direction. We were wrong.
Rachel Lindsay was the television show’s first lead of color, thirteen seasons into The Bachelorette in 2017. Since that time, Lindsay has been forced to do nearly 100% of the work to speak out against racism and bullying on the show. She was even pulled onto a segment about “online hate and harassment” during Peter Weber’s season in 2020. This is just another example of The Bachelor hiding behind Lindsay and using a person of color to do all of the emotional labor of “fixing racism” on the show. Note if you watch this segment that racism is never directly addressed, even though the contestants who are speaking of being affected by harassment are all women of color.
And yet now that the harassment has turned on Rachel and she needs the support, Chris Harrison remains silent. The show remains silent. They have relied on her for years, and yet they have done nothing to protect her.
We stand with Rachel Lindsay, and while our platform is small in comparison to other places that cover Bachelor content, we cannot in good conscience continue to cover and thereby support a show that is seemingly so unapologetic about its blatant racism.
We wish for nothing but the best for Matt James. Based on James’ statement, the show that ABC is currently airing is not something Matt James is comfortable with, and so we’re not comfortable with it either. It’s unfortunate that the first Black Bachelor had to have his story on the show overshadowed in such a horribly racist way. The Bachelor continues to air every week without any sort of disclaimer and without any kind of attempt to edit Chris Harrison out of the remaining episodes.
As fans of The Bachelor, we hope to see major changes if the show plans on continuing. And if we see those changes, we would love to return to recap future seasons. But until then, we’re taking a step back.
Meanwhile, you can support Rachel Lindsay outside of The Bachelor franchise by watching Ghosted on MTV and listening to her podcast Higher Learning with co-host Van Lathan.
Thanks for reading our recaps, and we hope to see you again next season, depending on what happens with the franchise.