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ABC's "The Bachelor Presents: Listen to Your Heart" - Season One

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‘The Bachelor’ and ‘Bachelorette’ franchise has never been very friendly when it comes to race.  Though it has been trying to better in recent years, there always seems to be those who takes the shows several steps back.

Case in point, a recent interview involving longtime host Chris Harrison and former ‘Bachelorette’ Rachel Lindsay that landed the former in hot water with his remarks on race.

As a result, Lindsay is now rethinking her involvement with ‘Bachelor Nation’ and say she is not renewing her contract when it expires.

From Complex:

“I’m fucking tired. I’m exhausted. I have truly had enough,” Lindsay said on the most recent episode of the Higher Learning podcast. “My entire reason for doing The Bachelorette—and I was lucky that it worked out for me in the most beautiful way in finding Bryan—is that I wanted to be representative as a Black woman to this audience. And I wanted to pave the way for more people to have this opportunity,” she said.

Lindsay made history as the “first-ever Black lead” on the ‘Bachelorette’ in 2017.  She ended up marrying her now-husband Bryan Abasolo.

Currently a correspondent on the syndicated entertainment news show ‘Extra,’ along with being an attorney, she did say she would quit the franchise if a “Black Bachelor” was not selected.  Ultimately, Matt James was chosen for the current season of the ‘Bachelor’ that is still airing.

Now, Lindsay appears to have had enough of the of the franchise’s ongoing racial turmoil:

“But how much more do I want to be affiliated with this?” Lindsay said on the podcast. “How much more can I take of things like this? I said I was gonna leave if they didn’t have leads of color. Okay, they did that, and they made some other changes. They hired a diversity consultant—who didn’t attend the class? Did Chris Harrison not sit through that? I’m confused as to how you could have whole consultants working for you, yet what happened just happened.”

This all comes after another controversy involving one of James’ contestants, Rachael Kirkconnell.  It appeared through photos she had attended “an antebellum plantation-themed fraternity formal” several years ago and had “liked images on social media that included the Confederate flag.”  She did apologize on Feb. 11 saying that “ignorance was racist.”

As for Harrison, he had appeared to defend Kirkconnell on ‘Extra’ in an interview with Lindsay that had him dismissing “cancel culture.”  After his comments had sparked a lot backlash, he later apologized to Lindsay and others for “wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism.”

Lindsay has since been having a “really hard time accepting this apology.”

Here is the interview below.

What are your thoughts on the whole controversy involving the ‘Bachelor/Bachelorette’ franchise?’

 

Click here to read more.

 

Article Courtesy of Complex

First Picture Courtesy of Bravo and Getty Images

Second Picture Courtesy of John Fleenor and Getty Images

Video Courtesy of YouTube and Extra

Rachel Lindsay Ready to Walk Away From ‘Bachelor Nation’ Following Chris Harrison Controversy  was originally published on wzakcleveland.com