Rachel Lindsay from The Bachelorette says she could see the show getting canceled. Her controversial comments came during a recent chat with Extra host Billy Bush. Lindsay was speaking out against the ongoing saga of contestant and winner Rachael Kirkconnell, who was accused of past racist behavior on social media.
Lindsay was at the forefront of the controversy, when she interviewed The Bachelor host Chris Harrison In February. She asked him to respond to the breaking scandal which involved season 25 frontrunner Kirkconnell attending a party and being photographed in Antebellum-style dress, as well as being posing alongside other racist iconography and liking racially insensitive pictures on social media. Harrison rushed to Kirkconnell's defense, which only fueled the issue. Kirkconnell's past behavior was even more shocking when taken into account that she was vying for the affections of the series first Black Bachelor, Matt James. Lindsay has been highly critical of the show's spotty lack of minority representation since its debut in 2002. Lindsay was, herself, the first African-American series lead in nearly 13 seasons of The Bachelorette and 21 seasons (at that point) of The Bachelor.
While speaking to Extra's Billy Bush, Lindsay expressed her concerns over the franchise's handling of racial matters, and also noted that she's disappointed that the show is doubling down with two seasons of The Bachelorette in 2021, rather than taking a hiatus to reflect on improving its legacy. She even hinted that the franchise might be a bad look altogether for aspiring contestants. About the upcoming season of the popular show, Lindsay went on to tell Bush, "Anybody that's standing up for change, I don't understand how you could be a part of this current season, because as we have seen in this current episode, there is still so much work to be done."
In recent years, there's been an increase in racial insensitivities seeing the light of day. From conservative Megyn Kelly's Blackface comments, to liberal crusader Jimmy Kimmel's blackface skits, Hollywood is showing that it's gone unchecked in its behavior towards people of color. For her efforts to speak out against the show that made her a star, Lindsay had to eventually leave Instagram, due to the barrage of backlash she received from racist fans in Bachelor Nation. Rachel Lindsay has been very vocal about her disdain for the racist tropes that find their way into the cultural lexicon. Her belief that The Bachelor franchise should be cancelled is certainly a valid one, given all of the recent turmoil on the show.
However, the entire series can't and shouldn't be vilified because of Chris Harrison's ignorance, or that of its contestants. Rome wasn't built in a day, and so it will certainly take the franchise a while to become more inclusive. True, it should have focused on diversity from day one, but the same can be said for Hollywood and many other industries, as a whole. Only within the past few years has the film and television industry really worked to tell stories from other cultures and backgrounds. Right now, the best thing for the franchise is to do what it did: remove Chris Harrison as the face of the brand, and infuse the series with fresh energy. After all, the greatest way to overcome the ignorance of the past is to do it swiftly and literally. Perhaps with news about hosts Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe, The Bachelorette can start to shed its outdated skin and become a place where people fall in love, 21st century-style.
Source: The Hollywood Gossip
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