'Bachelor' Contestants Talk About Racist Fans
by EG
Rachel Lindsay, former contestant on The Bachelor and lead on The Bachelorette, isn't beloved by all members of Bachelor Nation. Some of the franchise's fans dislike her because of her race. It's a problem faced by other women of color who've participated in the franchise, too, and Lindsay talked about it this week. Read on for details.
Via Page Six.
SPOILER ALERT: Do not read if you have not yet watched “The Bachelor: Women Tell All” from Season 24.
When the women of Peter Weber’s season of “The Bachelor” gathered in a soundstage in Los Angeles to recount their time on the ABC dating competition program, it wasn’t just details of what happened inside the mansion that they discussed. Host Chris Harrison brought former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay to also bring to the forefront of the conversation the unspoken consequence of being on the show: online harassment.
Lindsay discussed the onslaught she faced after starring in Season 21 of the romance competition before she received her own season of “The Bachelorette,” making her the first black bachelorette in the history of the show. She also read a few of the comments some of the girls from the current season starring Weber had received.
“No one cares that you’re a half n—-r, Mexican bitch,” one message read.
The crowd proceeded to cringe as Lindsay teared up while reading other messages that echoed the same tone. But although Harrison and Lindsay acknowledged the messages held tones of hate speech, they failed to call them out as racist.
This new segment in the infamous “Women Tell All” special came to fruition after Sydney Hightower voiced the problems she’d faced regarding hateful messages she’d received from “The Bachelor” fans.
“I felt so strongly about this and having this moment at the end to talk about those things because I dealt with that directly. I’ve dealt with it my whole life, but when you’re put to that magnitude, it hits you just a little bit different and it’s one of those things where you just have to be strong in it, but it’s not okay,” Hightower told Variety at the taping. “This has to stop. Nothing that we did on the show deserves that.”
Get the rest of the story at Page Six.
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