Rachel Lindsay Speaks Out About 'The Bachelor' and Racism
by EG
The Bachelor and its sister series The Bachelorette have dealt with plenty of race-related controversy over the years. Racially problematic comments and incidents involving both cast members and fans have been common. More siginificantly, the franchise has cast only one black lead in 18 years and over the course of 40 different series seasons. Rachel Lindsay, that single black lead, spoke up this week about the issue. Read on for details.
Via Page Six.
Before Rachel Lindsay was “The Bachelor” franchise’s first — and only — black lead in the ABC show’s 18-year history, the 35-year-old worked as a lawyer in Texas, where she experienced “subtle racism” inside the courtroom.
“I started off as a prosecutor and I would be sitting there, waiting for the defense attorney to come, and they would either bypass me because they would assume that I’m not the attorney or they would assume that I was the legal secretary or a paralegal — never the attorney,” she exclusively told Page Six. “I would have attorneys yell at me, hang up the phone on me, point in my face, and then my counterpart who was the lead on the case, they would not speak to at all in that way.”
But Lindsay, who says it was always white or Hispanic men who mistreated her, said she had developed a “thick skin” over time because of the discrimination she saw her father, judge Sam A. Lindsay, go through.
“My dad is now a federal judge, but when he started off, he graduated from the top law school in Texas and couldn’t get a job,” she said. “I had seen my dad overcome and work hard for the things that he has, and I hear the stories about the injustices that he faced. It’s those stories that make me stronger and give me the courage to do exactly what it is that I’m doing right now.”
As the only black lead in the “Bachelor” or “Bachelorette,” Lindsay often feels compelled to speak up when racial issues surface in the franchise, like when Mike Johnson was not chosen to be the “Bachelor” after being a fan favorite on Brown’s season.
“We have now casted for 40 seasons — even though they haven’t started Clare [Crawley’s],” she said. “There’s been one person of color in 40 seasons. We have 45 presidents. There has been one person of color. We are literally on par to saying that you are more likely to become the president of the United States than you are to be the lead of this franchise. That is insane.”
Last week, Lindsay joined hundreds in Miami to protest the death of George Floyd in police custody. Lindsay’s husband Bryan Abasolo, whom she met on “The Bachelorette” in 2017, joined her.
“It was Bryan’s first time [protesting] and I think, for him, it was a lot more emotional,” she said. “It was very powerful to look around and see so many people that didn’t look like me, who were all marching in unity for the same purpose. To look and see someone of a completely different race saying ‘Black Lives Matter,’ screaming it at the top of their voice, it was truly a beautiful moment.”
Lindsay said her participation in the protests was met with criticism from some fans online.
“I was protesting,” Lindsay clarified. “Looting is totally different … I know what I was there for. I know what we were a part of, and what we believe in, and I’m happy. I would do it again if I had the opportunity to protest.”
Abasolo, 40, is a white Latino of Colombian descent, and Lindsay said she and her husband have had several discussions about how they will raise their future biracial children in America.
“I told Bryan, ‘Listen, we’re in an interracial relationship and our children are going to be biracial. We don’t know what they’ll look like, but at the end of the day, they’re going to be seen as black,'” she said. “And so, the issues that are happening right now can directly affect our children because they will be black.”
Get the rest of the story at Page Six.
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