Bachelor Matt James criticizes the franchise’s race problem in public

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS ABOUT THE END OF MATT JAMES SEASON OF “THE BACHELOR”.

In a powerful statement posted on his Instagram account on Monday night, Bachelor Matt James unequivocally stated that ‘The Bachelor franchise is lacking’ when it comes to dealing with race. After host Chris Harrison defended a contestant with a disturbing history of racist behavior against ‘Extra’, James said that the current moment of reckoning for the franchise ‘also drove me to reevaluate and experience my experience of The Bachelor process.’

James and contestant Rachael Kirkconnell ended up together at the end of the season, with the 24-year-old graphic designer receiving the final rose in the final broadcast, as Reality Steve reported on January 21st. HuffPost has since learned that James and Kirkconnell are no longer together, and that their diversity has finally been engulfed by recent revelations that she attended an antebellum-themed fraternity formal in 2018 and in the past liked photos with Confederate flag images .

James’ statement is the most outspoken he has had in public about the franchise’s relationship with race since he as the first Black Bachelor in June on the heels of nationwide protests against police brutality and racism. (“It’s an honor,” James told Good Morning America at that point. ‘I’m just going to lean into myself and how my mother raised me, and hopefully when people invite me into their homes on Monday night, they will see that I do not differ much from them and that they see that diverse love. stories are beautiful. ”)

It’s also a very unusual move for a franchise to criticize the show in public before their season airs.

But in the wake of host Chris Harrison “temporarily suspended” from franchise after entering into a 15 minutes rant about the “awake police” for the first Black Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay, on “Extra,” the game got higher. As James wrote in his statement, he was obliged to ‘address the worrying information that has come to light since we filmed’.

‘As the season progressed, it became clear that Matt’s presence on the show was an example of what so many POCs encounter on a daily basis. He and the black women had to take on the extra responsibility to help ‘The Bachelor’ address issues of diversity and were often exploited, ‘a source close to James told HuffPost. ” The Bachelor managers could not realize that a diverse set of participants is not the same as creating fair conditions and opportunities. If they want to change, it means change behind and in front of the camera. ”

James aroused the anger of some fans for not speaking out about the franchise’s racism, especially given his clear association with Kirkconnell in the program. But he was also put in a painful position because his journey as the first Black Bachelor was overshadowed by controversy over the racist actions of both the woman he chose as the winner and the longtime host of the program.

James cannot bear the burden of the franchise or the weight of it to save it. ‘The Bachelor’ had a fiery relationship with race – and especially Blackness – even before James’ season, and a more diverse cast does not address the racism in the structures of the show and the entertainment industry as a whole.

James is not even the first black lead to be placed in the position of meeting a white contestant with a history of racist opinions and behavior on social media. In 2017, Lee Garrett was among the suitors of Lindsay, whose tweets compare the NAACP to the KKK and call Black Lives Matter a ‘terrorist group’ (among many others racist, Islamophobic, homophobic and misogynistic). turned up as the season aired. Lindsay has publicly stated that she feels like she framed as the “angry black woman” on her season. This month, she said she would finish the franchise after meeting her contractual obligations to ‘The Bachelor’.

Other participants of color reported similar experiences of tokenization, exploitation and racist setbacks that according to some could not have prepared or supported the program in it. Both Kupah James, a participant in Kaitlyn Bristowe’s season of “The Bachelorette”, and Taylor Nolan, a participant in Nick Viall’s season of “The Bachelor”, who is now a big proponent of racial equity in the franchise . told HuffPost during the summer they felt that they had been set up as ‘aggressive’ villains, and thus had a major setback. LaNease Adams, a black woman who starred in the first season of “The Bachelor” remember she found her photo on a white supremacist website and then experienced mental health struggles. And Jason Mesnick, the first and only Jewish bachelor, told HuffPost last year that the show had underestimated his Judaism, including by discouraging him from breaking a glass during his 2010 television wedding to his current wife Molly.

In 2012, two black men filed a class action lawsuit against the franchise against racial discrimination, which was eventually dismissed based on the first amendment. However, after the lawsuit, which began with Sean Lowe’s season of ‘The Bachelor’, the cast became more diverse. Color contestants still rarely make the coveted last four of the show, and even when they do, they often do not get the same amount of screen time and positive attention as their white counterparts.

Pieper James, one of the black women on James’ season, tweeted on February 11 that ‘Black women in this franchise should always be aware of our ‘grace’ because no one extends it to us. ‘Sy added later that she ‘waiting to hear the systematic changes that the franchise will call for to combat the tokenization of BIPOC individuals. ”

Until the last two weeks, no one from the executive team of “The Bachelor” has even faced some consequences for this racist history. (Even while Harrison apparently walked away to embark on an anti-racist journey, he continued to make money on Cameo and continued to appear on the already filmed episodes of this season.)

It seems like James is just hoping that his season can bring down the kind of institutional change that participants of color and viewers have been asking for for years. As he wrote on Instagram: “My biggest prayer is that this is a turning point that brings about real and institutional change for the better.”