As a sappy romance fanatic, I have been a fan of the Bachelor for forever. I have watched “The Bachelor,” “The Bachelorette,” “Bachelor in Paradise,” “Bachelor Winter Games” and, most recently, “The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart.”
Ever since the series debuted in 2002, there has been an apparent lack of diversity in shapes, sizes, and race, among the contestants.
Rachel Lindsay was the first Black woman to take a leading role on the Bachelor back in 2017. She starred as“The Bachelorette” after finding a fanbase on Nick Viall’s season of “The Bachelor.”
At the time, it seemed like the franchise was taking steps to bring much-needed diversity into the show, but the number of contestants from different racial backgrounds remained low.
This year, amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, Matt James was cast as the first Black bachelor.
James was originally going to be a contestant on Clare Crawley’s season of “The Bachelorette,” but the franchise needed to recast her set of bachelors due to COVID-19.
James has long been a fan favorite and has been supported as the first Black bachelor — mostly because he is a familiar face.
Tyler Cameron, a contestant from Hannah Brown’s season of “The Bachelorette,” is one of James’ best friends. I guess you could say James was already becoming part of the bachelor family.
This all makes choosing James as the next bachelor make sense. Recently, James was involved with a controversy involving some romantically inclined tweets from Crawley. Apparently, she didn’t seem interested in him after all.
But why say so now?
I don’t believe the bachelor team picked James to be the next bachelor purely because of his friendship with Cameron and this controversy. I think they chose him because of the BLM movement.
Change has been happening across the country to stop discrimination against people of color. Many voices have been speaking out.
So, from what I can see, this is “The Bachelor”’s way of supporting BLM.
This sort of comes as a shock to me. A contestant on Lindsay’s season, Lee Garrett, had racist tweets on his feed and was accused of playing “the race card.” More recently, Hannah Brown sang a racial slur live on her social media feed. She later apologized and said she has been working on further educating herself.
There is always controversy with diversity in this franchise. And the timing to finally cast a Black bachelor is a bit suspicious to me, but I’m glad it’s happening. I just hope this upward climb of welcoming diversity continues. This is a step in the right direction.
James himself couldn’t have said it better.
“I’m looking for qualities that … my mom embodies,” James said on Good Morning America. “Selfless, honest, caring, compassionate, and those are qualities found in women all shapes, sizes and races. And it’s not a Black or white thing. So, I’m hoping that when that limo pulls up, there’s a lot of diversity and I see every type of woman coming out of that limo.”
Lindsay Trombly can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @lindsay_trombly