At noon on Monday, the anti-racism campaign for The Bachelor franchise began. The movement was started and is backed by “Bachelor viewers who have become disillusioned by the lack of representation of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) within the franchise.”
The announcement of the campaign comes after Bachelorette star and "Bachelor Happy Hour" podcast co-host, Rachel Lindsay, threatened to disassociate herself from the franchise if they failed to address their diversity issue. In the 18-year history of The Bachelor franchise, Lindsay was the first and only black lead. The franchise had the opportunity to cast Mike Johnson, a fan favorite from The Bachelorette season 14, as the first black bachelor in season 24 but instead cast Peter Weber. Weber’s half-Cuban descent was highlighted in the season but despite this, he’s still white, as Lindsay pointed out in a statement made about the casting. The cast has sporadically cast individuals of Latin decent over the franchise’s 40 seasons.
Bachelor Diversity Campaign announced the campaign in a tweet on Friday. The movement includes a Change.org petition along with a viewer pledge supported by Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, influencers and media outreach. Organizers are asking viewers to post on the premiere day of The Bachelor: The Greatest Seasons- Ever! and every Monday thereafter for nine weeks. The program is a recap of previous Bachelor seasons with new scenes of Chris Harrison filmed outside of The Bachelor mansion. The series is being shown as a stand-in while COVID-19 prevents filming of a new season. The premiere airs at 8 p.m. EST on Monday.
The push for increased diversity comes after three weeks of nationwide protests against racism and police brutality sparked by the police murder of George Floyd. The campaign targets The Bachelor franchise specifically because of the platform it has. “ABC and Warner Bros. should acknowledge and apologize for their facilitation of systemic racism and make demonstrable efforts to combat it both onscreen and off,” the campaign said in a press release.
As far as goals are considered, the campaign wants a black man to be cast in season 25 of The Bachelor. They also demand 35% of the cast must be BIPOC going forward. With 30 to 33 women cast for every season of The Bachelor, this would amount to 10 to 12 people every season. The campaign also calls for these contestants to have equitable storylines, featured storylines about their experiences and mental health support. In addition, they demand more BIPOC employees be hired with equitable compensation along with a diversity consultant.
Source: Bachelor Diversity Campaign
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