I watched the first episode of Nick Viall’s season of The Bachelor out of curiosity but quickly became hooked. My roommates and I dubbed Mondays “Bachelor Mondays,” and we would gather in our living room to watch the two-hour episode every week. I quickly became familiar with the drama, misleading editing, and other tactics the producers use to try to bring in more viewers. Those of us that watch The Bachelor franchise know to expect drama, and we tolerate it. Honestly, a lot of times, we actually enjoy it.
However, I and other members of “Bachelor Nation” are not OK with the producers using racism as entertainment, or as a plot point. After 21 seasons of The Bachelor, and 13 seasons of The Bachelorette, the franchise finally got their first African American lead-Rachel Lindsay, a beautiful and brilliant attorney from Dallas, Texas. One might think that the producers would have the decency to make sure that every contestant was, at the least, not racist. Yet, one would be giving them too much credit.
The feud between Kenny, a black contestant, and Lee, a white contestant, was centered around race, albeit not always explicitly. Nevertheless, those of us who are familiar with the history of race relations in this country could easily recognize the micro-aggressions that Lee directed towards Kenny. For example, he kept calling Kenny “aggressive” and making up stories about how Kenny was violent towards him. Calling black men “aggressive” or “dangerous” has been used historically to justify their mistreatment, and even to justify lynching.
Lee not only got into a fight with Kenny but got into one with Eric, another black contestant, earlier in the season. He never had big conflicts with any of the white contestants, nor with the contestants of other races. For more proof of Lee’s racism, we can look to his Twitter account. Back in 2015, he tweeted “What’s the difference between the NAACP and the KKK? Wait for it…..One has the sense of shame to cover their racist ass faces.” He also has tweeted that he thinks Black Lives Matter is a terrorist group and has shared other tweets attacking Islam, liberals, Democrats, and feminists.
When Will, another contestant, tried to explain to Lee that Kenny likely found his rhetoric so offensive due to the history of black men being called “aggressive,” Lee accused Kenny of playing the “race card,” as if race does not have any effect on how an individual experiences the world and how they are treated by others. Lee, a white male who has obviously made no attempt to understand the lived experiences of people of color, had no right to try to minimize and delegitimize the way Kenny was feeling. He has no experience “driving while black,” or “shopping while black,” or anything of the sort.
Even Dean, another white contestant, stated last week that it seemed like Lee was not used to being around people of different backgrounds than his own. Lee’s racism was apparent not only to viewers but to other contestants on the show, even those who are not people of color.
My question is, why did the producers think that stirring up racist drama was acceptable? There is no way that they did not know about Lee’s racism before choosing him as a contestant. The producers choose from thousands of people that apply-interviewing them, conducting background checks, learning about their history, watching their submission videos, looking through their social media, and more. So, with all of this considered, why did we still have a racist like Lee on this season? Rachel deserved better, and so did Bachelor Nation. Keep the drama in the show, but leave the racism out of it.
