The Bachelorette has gotten many black people talking on whether Rachel's blackness would come into question if she decides to be engaged with a white man.
In diving deeper into the problem, Rachel becomes a minimal character, and egos between black and white men become the bigger focus. Black men are battling stereotypes and have to govern their masculinity since they are thirsty for power and respect. We also want to make the best of what life has dealt on us.
Kenny's one of the black contestant who is a wrestler, but he'd rather be known as a single father, and wants a strong woman to be his daughter's role model. Kenny battles the stigma that black love does not work and leaves children to side with either their mother or father. Rachel is a childless woman, so it is her prerogative if she wants to be a step-mother before being married or have a child of her own.
Josiah was once a troubled youth who acted out on behalf of his brother's suicide. He was offered a second chance in redemption, and so he turned his life around to be a prosecutor.
Fred is another black contestant who knew her from grade school. He has a lot to prove to Rachel because she still sees him as the immature kid who always got into trouble.
Whether Rachel falls in love with a black man is not important, but black men also have to be mindful of their presence on the show, because white viewers are nitpicking to find a reason to discredit this season.
Black men are up against clean-cut white men who have privileges and a patriarchy. White men are not burdened with racial stereotypes that eliminates them from dating black women, even in the Trump-era. What black men fear is losing black women to other races of men. They are something new, and with dating out of the race, it may feel good. Some black people are more comfortable expressing themselves in white spaces because blackness has labels that burden us on what is acceptable.
Black patriarchy tells what is the code of conduct to follow, yet it leaves black women with the burden to be foot-soldiers to a movement that does not give proper credit to those feminists who are on the streets fighting black lives. Meanwhile, black men can date out their own race and change the rules as they go along. They create gullible theories that white women are more submissive because they value men, while black women are labeled as argumentative.
Even though, black women are anti-patriarchy, some admire the privileges of adapting to class-ism and elite lifestyle that blinds their eyes on racial politics, yet it is more of a survival mechanism wanting out of the black community, and finding their own safe space in enemy lines.
The conundrum even has me dazed and confused as I want black men to win, but I have to remember the many times, in less than 6 months, that we trended in disrespecting black women. We called them too dark, ugly, uncoachable and too masculine. So I can understand if black fans are not to in favor of a black man winning Rachel's heart.
