The Bachelorette : Tayshia and Ivan Have an Emotional Discussion About Race and Police Brutality

Dana Rose Falcone
·4 min read

abc Tayshia and Ivan.

This post contains spoilers from Tuesday's episode of The Bachelorette.

After Tayshia Adams picked Ivan Hall for a one-on-one date on Tuesday's episode of The Bachelorette, it didn't take long for the two to dive deep into their experiences with being biracial.

"There aren't many people like Ivan and I where I grew up, and so I haven't really had a man my age that's also of mixed descent to relate to," said Orange County, California, native Adams.

Adams, 29, identifies as Mexican and Black, and Hall, 28, identifies as Filipino and Black.

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Hall revealed his younger brother, Gabe, turned to drugs and alcohol and eventually spent four years in prison because of it. His brother, who got released last year, confided in the aeronautical engineer about the police brutality he witnessed while behind bars.

"You can only imagine how much wilder it could be in prison, right?" Hall told Adams. "My brother used to tell me stories about how these COs, correctional officers, like, literally beat him up and I felt so bad because my first question was like, 'Well, Gabe, what did you do?' But it doesn't matter. No matter what George Floyd did either way or what my brother did, these people have a job to do and they need to do it right. They can't just be like hurting people for no reason."

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Adams also reveals that there weren’t as many kisses in her first episode as she would’ve liked

When Hall asked Adams about how the acts of police brutality this year — such as the May killing of 46-year-old Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin — have affected her, she started to tear up. "Being Black, especially in this climate, there are things she's struggling with internally that I could tell she's really hesitant to say," Hall said in an on-camera interview.

Adams proceeded to open up about how she feels different than her peers because of the way she looks.

"Being in Orange County surrounded by a lot of people that don't look like me, being the only person that looks like me, I'm realizing that I've been trying so hard my whole life to blend in because I knew I was different," Adams said. "I just remember hearing people yelling 'Black Lives Matter' and I don't know why I'm even crying — it's just a lot."

ABC Ivan Hall and Tayshia Adams

She continued, "This conversation is hitting me more than I even thought. But like, I didn't really want to cry about it or open up about it. Hearing people yelling 'Black Lives Matter,' it hit me more than I realized, just because those are people in my backyard that I've been trying to prove for so long that I'm the same as them."

Hall admitted he "100 percent can relate" because he experienced racism when he went to a college where "there weren't many Black people."

"Randomly walking down next to my campus and being called the N-word like, randomly by some people. It happens all the time. Happened all the time to me in college," Hall said. "I remember that. And that's just not right."

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Ultimately, Hall and Adams remained hopeful for the future and concurred that the heavy discussion brought them closer together.

"We're both biracial, have Black dads and we have this beautiful love story developing," Hall said. "This is is just so big. This is crazy. This is beautiful. It's giving me chills, honestly."

Adams agreed. "I've never had this before, someone mixed like me," she said before giving Hall the one-on-one date rose. "And 2020 made that happen."

The Bachelorette airs Tuesdays (8 p.m. ET) on ABC.

To help combat systemic racism, consider learning from or donating to these organizations:

  • Campaign Zero works to end police brutality in America through research-proven strategies.

  • ColorofChange.org works to make the government more responsive to racial disparities.

• National Cares Mentoring Movement provides social and academic support to help Black youth succeed in college and beyond.