I Am Nervous as Hell About Emmanuel Acho Joining Bachelor Nation

On his popular video series Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man, former Cleveland Browns linebacker and New York Times best-selling author Emmanuel Acho tackles charged racial issues with white folks, sometimes famous, who don’t quite get it. So he's more than prepared for his latest gig: hosting The Bachelor's “After the Final Rose” episode on Monday, March 15. 

Acho is a newcomer to Bachelor Nation—he's even turned down multiple offers to appear on The Bachelorette before—but he'll be taking over while host Chris Harrison takes a “step back” from the franchise following an interview in which he defended Rachael Kirkconnell, a contestant on this season of The Bachelor who was called out for past racist behavior including attending an “Old South”–themed party.

There’s no doubt in my mind Acho will do well in this new role. He knows how to treat white people gently and explains issues of race better than most. He gets through to people—and, God willing, he can get through to Bachelor Nation. My concern: How will The Bachelor treat Acho?

I'm a relatively new member of Bachelor Nation, but my love of reality TV goes deep. I’ve seen every episode of Vanderpump Rules at least three times; after yet another rewatch in quarantine, my partner's sister convinced me that the illusive mix of villainy, ridiculousness, and earnest bad behavior that makes my love for VPR so strong also exists in the Bachelor franchise. And, hey, I had the time. One quarantine year roughly equals four regular life years, so I’ve been able to mainline quite a bit of the franchise. But watching almost a dozen seasons spread across The Bachelor, Bachelor in Paradise, and The Bachelorette in a relatively short period of time has shown me, again and again, that the franchise doesn’t take proper care of its Black contestants. 

Pick a season, any season out of 40, and you’re likely to find objectionable behavior being inflicted on a member of the Black community. Let’s set aside the fact that it took 18 years for the show to feature a Black lead, instead opting to offer up a series of visually similar white dudes including Brad Womack twice. When we finally got Matt James this season, he spent a significant chunk of the first episode reminding Harrison, and all of us at home, that he was a biracial man raised by a white woman. While there’s nothing wrong with honoring both sides of someone’s dual ethnicity, it felt strange to watch the first Black Bachelor working overtime to remind us he was also white.

But embracing Blackness hasn’t gone well for contestants on The Bachelor before. Black men are told they’re cocky, arrogant, or aggressive. (See: Kenny and Josiah on Rachel Lindsay’s season.) Unless a contestant is discussing their proximity to whiteness and the trials of being biracial, like Ivan did on Tayshia’s season of The Bachelorette, sharing stories of Blackness are largely absent from the world of The Bachelor. There are a few notable exceptions, including Chelsea Vaughn discussing her natural-hair journey on James’s season. But all this in combination makes me really anxious about what Acho is in for as he joins Bachelor Nation to temporarily—maybe even permanently—replace Harrison.

As former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay has commented, The Bachelor can be more reactive than responsive. Considering Harrison’s abysmal behavior in his interview with Lindsay, bringing in Acho seems like an overcorrection. The Bachelor has shown us repeatedly that it doesn’t know how to deal with POC respectfully, from its “no-locs policy” to treating racial microaggressions like a juicy storyline instead of shutting them down.

How will the producers and editors handle a guest host asking the uncomfortable questions that Acho—based on his best-selling book and video series—is bound to ask? How will the other contestants respond to Kirkconnell, the rumored winner of the season? And will viewers actually listen and learn rather than complain that the franchise has become “too political”? 

After almost a dozen seasons, I’m too familiar with Black men and women being overlooked or ignored to expect this to go well. But maybe The Bachelor really is ready for radical change—and I'm happy that Acho’s new role could be a launchpad for bigger and better things. Though this season began with Queen Victoria hurling microaggressions at women of color and ends with Matt James, the first Black Bachelor, allegedly picking Kirkconnell, it still has featured more WOC than any other season in the show's history. So if I was inclined to give The Bachelor the benefit of the doubt, I’d say I'm looking forward to the show’s next chapter.

But after a year of racial reckoning in our country, I’m not sure I owe any institution that doesn’t support POC the benefit of the doubt. Instead, I’m rooting for Acho—and Michelle Young, TBH—to be treated with respect and dignity during the “After the Final Rose” episode. Fingers crossed Acho was brought on to host for “the right reasons.”

Amber Rambharose is a beauty writer in Philadelphia. Follow her on Instagram @amberdeexterous.

Originally Appeared on Glamour