A new host won’t fix Bachelor Nation
Rachel Lindsay, the first Black woman to land the coveted role of The Bachelorette, is no longer on Instagram. Yesterday, she was driven from the platform by racist trolls seeking to blame her for the public downfall of franchise host Chris Harrison who announced he’d be “stepping away” from his role in the aftermath of his wrong-minded defense of embattled contestant Rachael Kirckonell’s past racist activity during an interview conducted by Lindsay. The controversy has thrown the first season of The Bachelor to feature a Black male lead, Matt James, into disarray and split Bachelor Nation (its fan base) into two camps — #fireChrisHarrison and #keepChrisHarrison. But what the circumstances surrounding Lindsay’s retreat from social media tell us, is that a new host might save the season, but it won’t save Bachelor Nation.
One look at the comments section of any article or social post covering this controversy introduces a striking comparison — that the #keepChrisHarrison crowd is a microcosm of the MAGA crowd. These are the viewers that the franchise has cultivated for nearly two decades through the perpetual elevation of White heteronormativity and the erasure of marginalized groups — BIPOC, disabled, LGBTQ and even plus sized populations to be specific. The Bachelorette premiered in 2003 and did not cast its first BIPOC lead until Lindsay took on the role in 2017. Thus the franchise’s primarily White and largely conservative audience feels “ownership” over this show and its inherent Whiteness, much like the MAGA crowd feels ownership over this country and its White supremacy. After all, making America great again always stood for a return to some indefinite time in the past, a past that at any point was either drastically or marginally less free and equitable for the aforementioned underrepresented groups.
For years certain fans, the ones currently accosting Lindsay with racist comments across her social channels, have resisted the calls of other fans and critics to “diversify” The Bachelor franchise. These fans see the face of the franchise Chris Harrison, the picture of White male privilege, being held accountable for his defense of racist activities as the newest example of cancel culture by what Harrison calls the “woke police”. In their eyes, Harrison’s defense of a Bachelor contestant’s participation in an Old South fraternity ball is simply not a big deal. After all, it’s just history — never mind a history propped up by the evil practice of slavery. The #keepChrisHarrison campaign rejects the notion that a White man’s power and privileges can be diminished for defending the Old way. And who does this audience blame for the stripping away of his power? They blame Black and Brown people like Rachel Lindsay, Mike Johnson, Ivan Hall, Taylor Nolan and Tayshia Adams… the BIPOC contestants and leads who are bearing the brunt of backlash for speaking up across social media.
“How dare they try to make us something we are not?” they seem to ask. And the anger is only intensifying. This mentality is inherently racist and racism is a sickness of Bachelor Nation that can’t be cured simply by bringing in a new host. So, in the eyes of this writer, the Bachelor franchise needs to rebuild from the ground up and cultivate a new audience — one with stakes not only in diversity but also in inclusion AND equity. Let the #keepChrisHarrison crowd retain what they see as inherently theirs, in memory only, and build a more forward looking product that can be inherently for all of us.
