One of the frontrunners of Matt James’ The Bachelor season’s Rachael Kirkconnell has found herself in the midst of social media’s latest “Is this you?”
When Season 25 of The Bachelor premiered it made history with Matt James being the first Black bachelor. As the season goes on, Rachael Kirkconnell’s alleged racist past was brought to light. As reported by Meaww, TikTok user @maddyybierster posted a video captioned, “girlieeee, remember when you bullied me in high school for liking black guys???”
The same user later posted more videos that offered an explanation. TikTok user @Feministmama also published a video on the platform that detailed the allegations of racism against Kirkconnell and her friends, including some of her friends doing Blackface and using the n-word on social. One of the Georgia native’s friends rushed to defend her. However, as social media users found racist tweets of her [Kirkconnell’s friend] own, she quickly exited the conversation.
To compound the concern of racism with not only Kirkconnell, but her friends as well, users of Reddit posted alleged screenshots of Kirkconnell and her friends in front of a Confederate flag. Also on Reddit is a thread that shows Kirkconnell liking a photo with a woman wearing a MAGA hat and another woman pointing at the hat. The Instagram was captioned “#trumptrain.” Because she liked the post, many people believe that Kirkconnell may have supported Trump.
As of now, Kirkconnell social media profiles appear to be absent of racism and she spoke out against the handling of the insurrection as opposed to the handling of BLM protests.
It is also worth noting that James was registered as a Republican before June 2020. His mother also follows Donald Trump, Melania Trump and Franklin Graham.
As reported by Distractify, one fan wrote on Reddit, “Anyone who thinks [the powers that be] didn’t do a deep dive into who Matt James is the moment he ended up on their radar for Clare Crowley’s season, is beyond naïve. There is no doubt that Mike Johnson’s blackness was a little too intense for the audience, and they wanted to make sure that the first Black bachelor wasn’t the male version of Rachel Lindsay.”
The user continued, “They only tolerate her because she’s still their only example of diversity success in this franchise. Once Matt James chooses his [winner] and gets to 1 million followers on Instagram, Rachel will no longer be tolerated. Matt and his [winner] will replace her and [her husband] Bryan [Abasolo]. Matt James was a godsend for [the powers that be], and him being a Republican is the icing on the cake.”
“Y’all … they found the whitest Black man ever,” said someone else. “I can’t do nothing but laugh at this s**t. They trolling the f**k outta us. It’s a wrap for me.”
Some, however, gave James the benefit of the doubt. “I mean, giving him the most benefit of the doubt would be if he registered to vote in college and just registered for the frattiest party, and then never got around to voting,” said another person.
Regardless of all of this, especially if she wins the season, Kirkconnell will have to address these alleged posts at some poinit.
