‘The Bachelor’: Rachel Lindsay Wants Better Vetting for Matt James to Avoid Racist Casting From Her Season
Producers of The Bachelor have a lot of time to prepare for next season. Matt James will be the star and it won’t air until 2021. Rachel Lindsay is calling for better vetting of cast members. Find out what she said about a racist being on her season of The Bachelorette.
Rachel Lindsay’s season of ‘The Bachelorette’ had controversy
Lindsay was the star of season 13 of The Bachelorette. There was controversy that season because Lee Garrett’s racist tweets resurfaced.
Garrett tweeted “What’s the difference between the NAACP and the KKK? One has a sense of shame to cover their racist a** faces.” Chris Harrison confronted him about these tweets on Men Tell All.
“I don’t like racism at all,” he said. “It bothers me morally, it bothers me inside, and I don’t like it. And when I woke up and I saw that those came out, it hurt me a lot.”
He also apologized to Lindsay. “I took a situation that was very important to you and very important to a lot of people, and I didn’t take that initiative to learn, and I watched it and just, goodness,” he said.
Matt James will be the first Black star of ‘The Bachelor’
Lindsay recently called out The Bachelor for not being diverse enough. She threatened to leave the franchise if something didn’t change.
It was then announced James will be the star of season 25 of The Bachelor. He was previously cast as a contestant of Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette. However, her season has been postponed due to the pandemic.
Lindsay revealed the producers talked to her after her comments on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen. “They told me that they heard me and that they’re wanting to do more and make changes,” she said. “And they actually did release a statement after they announced him saying that they’ve been on the wrong side of this and they’re vowing to make changes internally and to have more contestants of color.”
She talked about having a racist on her season
Lindsay talked to Cohen about the future of the franchise. She hopes the producers won’t repeat history.
“I did have a racist contestant on my season,” she said. Lindsay said the producers “didn’t do a good job of vetting out” this man. She also talked about what helps avoid such mistakes.
“You need a person of color in the decision room making decisions so that doesn’t happen to them,” she added. Lindsay didn’t name the person who was racist on her season. Time will tell if James’ season will avoid this mistake.
