Rachel Lindsay hinted that The Bachelor production team’s casting decisions are partially to blame for Black contestants not ending up with winners of color.
Lindsay’s comments came Monday while she was a guest on Ziwe Fumudoh’s self-titled Showtime variety series.
“There was a point where I broke down on camera, and they [the producers] used my tears for something else, but I was getting upset at the selection of men of color,” she told Fumudoh, as recapped by People. “I also learned as I was going through my season that several of the Black men on my season didn’t date Black women.”
Fumudoh pressed the first Black Bachelorette lead for more information.
Related Story: ‘Bachelor’ Host Chris Harrison Met With Race Scholar in Fight to Save Job
Lindsay said producers “found it interesting” to cast Black male contestants who had never dated a Black woman. “I said, ‘You think that’s interesting? That’s my life. I live that,'” she recalled.
The 36-year-old attorney and podcast host’s husband — who she picked on The Bachelorette — is Bryan Abasolo, a Colombian American.
As previously reported, Rachel Lindsay has been a vocal advocate for more diversity on ABC’s hit Bachelor franchise.
Earlier this year, she said it was “the right decision” for Bachelor host Chris Harrison to step aside from hosting the shows after his controversial comments about race. Lindsay had a tense exchange with Harrison during a now viral interview on Extra, in which he defended this past season’s former contestant Rachael Kirkconnell for her past racially insensitive social media posts, including a picture of her posing at an Antebellum plantation-themed party.
Since the incident with Harrison, Lindsay has been increasingly stepping away from the franchise. She is currently working on an upcoming memoir titled “Miss Me with That.”
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