'Bachelor in Paradise' cast talk race and slut-shaming following controversy

Nick Paschal
·Supervising Producer, Yahoo Entertainment

Things got serious on Bachelor in Paradise when the cast came back together after production was shut down because of sexual-misconduct allegations surrounding Demario Jackson and Corinne Olympios. On Tuesday’s episode, the cast returned to Paradise, and Chris Harrison sat them all down to talk about what happened.

Chris asked everyone, “Do you think race played a part in this?” and after a long silence, everyone agreed that it did. When the news broke, many people were quick to blame DeMario, who is African-American, but the cast clearly supported him and didn’t think he did anything wrong. Jasmine said, “I never felt he was aggressive with any of us or with me, and I just hate that he’s gonna have this, like, you know, image stuck with him for a while.”

Although everyone seemed to support DeMario, they made it clear it didn’t mean they were picking sides. Raven said, “I think for me and Jas, when we were kind of vocal about sticking up for DeMario, people automatically assumed we were slut-shaming Corinne. And that was not the case at all.”

Though the cast agreed that the incident was blown out of proportion, Raven made a good point — that there are many incidents of sexual abuse that aren’t exaggerated. As a victim of an abusive relationship herself, Raven didn’t want people to be afraid to be vocal about sexual abuse. She said, “I hope this situation doesn’t deter actual victims from coming forward and really speaking their truth and getting help and asking for help. I hope this doesn’t deter anybody.”

Bachelor in Paradise airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on ABC. Watch clips and full episodes of Bachelor in Paradise for free on Yahoo View.

See what happened when Bachelor in Paradise had to shut down production:

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