Rachel Lindsay No Longer Wants to be Affiliated With the Bachelor Franchise
Former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay has been reevaluating her relationship with the Bachelor franchise as protests continue around the country in support of the Black Lives Matter movement after the killing of George Floyd by police officers.
“We have now casted for 40 seasons—even though they haven’t started Clare [Crawley’s],” she said in a new interview with Page Six. “There’s been one person of color in 40 seasons. We have 45 presidents. There has been one person of color. We are literally on par to saying that you are more likely to become the president of the United States than you are to be the lead of this franchise. That is insane.
“How can I sit back and be quiet, when I am a part of something that isn’t as supportive or doesn’t reflect who I am? I just feel like if anybody is in my position, you couldn’t sit quiet about that,” Lindsay continued. “I don’t think that anyone would fault me—a higher-up in the franchise—for saying that.” One would definitely hope not.
That being said, Lindsay told the publication that she feels like she must hold herself accountable as well. “I feel like I’ve been a little bit a part of the problem,” Lindsay said. “We continue to make excuses as to why we haven’t seen this change. You continue to say, ‘Oh well, it’s just because the lead hasn’t picked a person of color that’s gone far enough. Oh, this person was more qualified for this person. Oh, the audience liked this person more.’ But that’s not true.”
“Once I saw what they did in Bachelor in Paradise, bringing in somebody who is not even a cast member in Kristian [Haggerty] to facilitate this relationship between Demi [Burnett] and Kristian, I know that that franchise has the power to do whatever they want, including having a lead of color, and it’s time to stop making excuses,” Lindsay said.
When asked about this by SiriusXM host Bevy Smith earlier this May, Chris Harrison said the show is trying to catch up. “What we realized is if you don’t see yourself represented—no matter if it is on TV or in a club or whatever—you’re probably not going to want to attend. You’re not going to feel comfortable,” he said at the time. “So we had to take that first step, and we have done better at casting and putting more diverse people on the show, therefore you see yourself represented more. Again, I think it takes a long time to turn around a big boat. We needed to take that step and I think we’ve done much better in the last few seasons for sure. We’ll continue to do that.”
At this point, Lindsay said it’s “embarrassing” to be associated with The Bachelor. “When I look at what’s happening in our country, and then I look at the franchise, I can’t continue to be affiliated—it’s embarrassing honestly at this point—to be affiliated with a franchise who is not on the right side of this,” she told Page Six.
Rachel Lindsay was the first black lead of the franchise during the 13th season of The Bachelorette in 2017. She has spoken out about how the show and its stars handle race, including after Hannah Brown said the N-word during an Instagram Live post in May. When Brown first apologized via Instagram Stories, Lindsay took to Instagram to share her disappointment. “It’s easy to make a statement, it’s easy to hide behind words, but when you’re bold enough to say the N-word on camera, on your platform, then you need to be bold enough to use your face on camera and apologize in the same way that you said the word,” she said at the time.
Brown has since filmed an Instagram Live video apology, promising to take accountability and asking her followers not to defend her actions. Linsday told Page Six that she felt the apology was “genuine.” “There were a lot of things that were promised in the apology as far as she’s going to take action, and so I think people are watching for that,” she added.
You can read the entire interview here. Glamour has reached out to Warner Bros. for comment and will update this post once we receive a response.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
