The Bachelorette winner Rachel Lindsay is opening up about her time on the show. Lindsay made history as the first Black lead of the series and she’s calling out the franchise for its lack of diversity once again.
During the May 17 episode of Ziwe, host Ziwe Fumudoh asked Lindsay about the backlash she may have received for choosing a white suitor.
“All three of the Black bachelors and bachelorettes have ended up with partners who are not of color,” Fumudoh noted.
Lindsay, The Bachelor’s Matt James (season 25), and Bachelorette Tayshia Adams, are the only three Black leads in the franchise’s 33-season history. All are dating, married or engaged to a white person.
But Lindsay says there’s a reason for such, at least in her case. Lindsay says there were not many suitors of color on her season and admits she was emotionally impacted by it. “There was a point where I broke down on camera, and they used my tears for something else, but I was getting upset at the selection of men of color,” she said.
Throughout her season, she said, she’d learned “several” of the Black men on her season “didn’t date Black women” and that the showrunners “found it interesting.”
“I said, ‘You think that’s interesting? That’s my life. I live that,'” Lindsay said.
This isn’t the first time Lindsay is calling out the show regarding issues of diversity. During James’ season, she spoke out about her feeling the production used James estrangement with his father to play into the stereotype of Black men who have absentee fathers.
“What’s the one thing we know about [Matt’s] dad? That he wasn’t around,” Lindsay said, as reported by People. “That’s all we know which, if you know anything about stereotypes that are assigned to particular races — here, the Black race — you know that absentee fathers is a stereotype.”
She continued, “We know that Matt has not been able to open up and to fully express himself in these relationships because he still has to get over the hurdle of confronting his father about the fact that he was not around when [Matt] was growing up,” she said. “And Matt can’t get to the next level until he has this conversation. That’s how this has been presented to us.”
Lindsay recently ended her relationship with the franchise, leaving her Bachelor Nation podcast.
