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Rachel Lindsay Details Parting Ways From Bachelor Franchise in Powerful Op-Ed

Rachel Lindsay's Biggest Revelations in Bachelor Op-Ed

Rachel Lindsay Details Parting Ways From Bachelor Franchise in Powerful Op-Ed

June 21, 2021 by Kelsie Gibson

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ABC was reportedly eyeing Rachel as the first Black Bachelorette during her audition. "An insider later told me they had been thinking of me as the first Black Bachelorette way back during my audition," she said. "At the time, there had been a shift in leadership at ABC. Channing Dungey, who is a Black woman, had just taken over as president. At the TV upfronts, she said, 'There will be a lead of color while I'm here. I'm making it my priority.' They didn't say this part, but it couldn't be a man. A Black man going into the homes of white women and sleeping with their daughters is a narrative the audience still can't accept. They're protecting them from that, as we saw with the Matt James season — they didn't even show him waking up with Rachael after their fantasy-suite episode, during which the lead spends the night with a finalist. So it had to be a Black woman."
She felt "exploited" during her hometown date with Peter Kraus. Though producers don't like for people to meet the contestant's friends, Rachel noted that they made an exception for her hometown date with Peter. "I walked in and saw two Black men and two white women sitting at a table," she said. "I turned to my producer and gave her a look. I wish they had caught my face on-camera — the way I turned and stared at her, like, 'Really, b*tch?'" She noted that her entire conversation with Peter's friends ended up being about "having 'mixed babies' and what it was like to be an interracial couple." "I couldn't believe it," she said. "I'm Black. I have interracial couples in my family. I'm old enough to understand what I'm entering into and the difficulties that come with it. I felt exploited. If anything, that situation turned me off of Peter because I couldn't see myself hanging out with them. They were nice, but it was so contrived. The producers really thought, 'How great!' All these mixed couples can come together. They were only looking at the optics of the situation."

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