After three months of watching this highly anticipated season of Bachelor franchise, I’m feeling exhausted. We waited almost 20 years to see the first black bachelor to find love on national television, and the result was sad, frustrating and, ultimately, unsuccessful. The franchise continues to avoid dealing with racial issues embedded in the show’s history – and as a result, host Chris Harrison has temporarily ceased hosting, and Matt James, the Bachelor himself, has been heartbroken and in search of a therapist. I think it’s safe to say that this historic season has been a total failure.
To process all of this, Cut talked to the podcast presenters 2 black girls, 1 pink – Justine Kay and Natasha Scott – to recap the end of the season and unpack two decades of editions of the whitest show on the planet.
Devine Blacksher, associate fashion editor: How did you feel watching the ending? I was very angry, stressed and frustrated with Matt James, but also with the Bachelor franchise in general.
Natasha Scott: I think the overwhelming feeling was sad.
I’ve been watching the show since the first season. It’s 20 years – my entire teenage years! I’m dying to see a black man’s journey on this show. We finally got it on Matt James, and I’m really sad that it was delivered to us. I feel sad for him and angry that he really is in this position – particularly at the end, where he chose Rachael Kirkconnell without fully knowing his past. They escalated her, although she had a very documented history of racist behavior that he did not know about.
But there are also certain questions and conversations that he clearly did not have with her. I am also disappointed in him.
Justine Kay: Although all of this was pretty much what I expected, since when they supported him in June with that salmon jacket, it’s as if the producers were saying, “Oh, did George Floyd die? We need a black man now. ”And then Rachael happens. And then Chris Harrison happens.
DB: I wish they had found a bachelor’s degree who was emotionally mature and ready to be on this show. I feel that Matt had a lot of personal problems to deal with.
Speaking of which, let’s talk about his father coming on the show. I literally had to take a break. I was like, I can’t watch this. It was overwhelming, the way the producers did it. It’s a five-minute clip of them talking about something so serious, and it’s the first time he’s talked to his dad about it. I felt like it was trauma pornography, and it had a stereotype that white people tend to have of a black father.
NS: And it looked like your dad was taken by surprise! You could say that the producers told him everything they needed to say to get him there, but he was not prepared for this conversation. It was a very crude conversation about unresolved family issues that should be done privately, just between him and his son. It felt like something we shouldn’t be watching.
And yet they are on national television, having this conversation for an overwhelmingly white audience that has been socialized with the stereotypes of the absent black father. It is this giant stereotype that is put on display, packaged very nicely in this five-minute conversation for whites to see, dissolve and then continue.
And yes, this is the truth of Matt James. But an important context is also missing.
DB: When Matt was like, “He bought me sneakers, and what I needed was a dad”, it was like a soap opera – very dramatic. And I know it’s, again, the truth of it, but something about it – I was like, We can say that many blacks are not part of this production. It’s just a team made up largely of whites telling this story, and it’s horrible.
NS: Watching this conversation, it became so clear that it was a team of mostly white executives, white producers, white storytellers who are telling the story. Even the selection of that catchphrase – so stereotyped.
DB: Part of me feels bad for Matt. He looked uncomfortable all season, and I still don’t feel like I really know his personality. How do you think they could have done better to share the story of the first Black Bachelor?
JK: No. 1, they should have chosen someone who was already on the show. That’s part of the reason why he was so uncomfortable! You can say that he doesn’t know when to say no to producers. They should have chosen someone with more experience in being on TV – I think that’s why he seemed so nervous and at times he seemed so foolish all season.
DB: Yeah, he looked like a homie – his mouth is open, and he’s like, I do not know what to do.
JK: And a lot “I love it. Thanks for sharing. “Only very generic phrases.
NS: Yes, I think he was a diluted version of himself.
What irritated me was that we learned after the fact about that conversation he had with Chelsea about hair. Chelsea told him all about how she shaved her head and then she revealed in a later interview with Rachel Lindsay that Matt also shared his story as a black man who used to have dreads. He had a whole history of hair that they chose not to show.
It’s almost like I can’t even believe what they’re showing me about Matt James, because it’s like they’re purposely editing his darkness.
DB: Yes, it really opens my eyes a little more. I was not aware of your hair story being edited.
So, let’s talk about the controversial photos of Rachael Kirkconnell at an Old South themed pre-war party in 2018. When that news came out in February, what did you think?
NS: It was like, We’ve been here before. We saw this in Rachel Lindsay’s season. A guy named Lee, who had a series of racist comments and tweets on Facebook, was cast for the first season of Black Bachelorette.
And here we are again: another historic season, a black leadership and, once again, no protection for this black leadership. No extra parameters taken to ensure they don’t launch another Lee.
JK: But the shot backfired in a way they probably didn’t expect, to the point where his own show guy, Chris Harrison, has now been exposed for who he really is. Do not say that you will do better if you do not want to invest money, time or research in it.
DB: How did you think it was the post-show?
NS: This was the first time that Matt James was allowed to appear as a black man. Even just the first question that Emmanuel thinks asked, “How much pressure was it to be the first Black Bachelor?” I mean, he had the same conversation, more or less, with Chris Harrison that first night. But this time, sitting in front of a black man, it meant that we could hear him share some very real things that resonated with me as a black person.
That’s what we all heard growing up: working twice as hard to reach half, understanding how we represent our race when we enter spaces that are mostly white, the pressure of having to be on you FOR‘sand Q‘s. Matt was finally able to explain his emotional work of being the black in a blank space. As he said, he shows up at 8 pm every Monday in the homes of whites across the country, many of whom have never had blacks in their homes before.
JK: For Natasha and me – and, I’m sure, for you – nothing they said seemed very uncomfortable. But for white viewers, it probably is. I think that was very important.
DB: Another thing I noticed is that the finalists were all mestizos, except Rachael. What do you think was going on there?
JK: Many white people need to have their hands safe in the dark – yeah, We are not going to push them into a room full of neat black girls. We will make it more digestible. We will make it palatable. Let’s make sure that girls don’t have very dark skin. We are going to leave it still slightly adjacent to the whiteness. It is not forgotten why the cast of women is like that – beautiful women, but we understand the strategy behind it.
NS: The entire season was just a missed opportunity. It was a moment to show a fully developed portrait of a black man, to tell his love story – and they blew it.
JK: And what is so surprising is how many improvements I saw in the story lines of the black characters in the season of Tayshia. We saw Ivan talking about George Floyd. We saw Tayshia and him really talking about race, so much that she was so heartbroken that she couldn’t even speak. We met Ivan’s brother, with tattoos on his face.
I don’t understand what happened between this season and this one.
DB: What do you think about Michelle and Katie as the next two singles?
NS: We cannot achieve anything for ourselves. They also announced Tayshia and Kaitlyn as the new hosts for the show. Why can’t it just be Tayshia? Why can’t it just be Michelle? Why do we always have to share a spotlight?
DB: Why do they have to comfort everyone who is comfortable forever? Why can’t they just give us our spotlight?
NS: Because in the minds of the producers, we didn’t watch the show. The audience is white women, period. This is what has worked for 20 years and is where they will continue to play as well.
DB: What keeps you two coming back to the show then?
NS: This season, in particular, was too exhausting to recap and analyze. But I do that, and I will continue to do it, for our listeners, for the community we have built. We have listeners who are women of color who thank us for saying what they are thinking. We also have white listeners who write to us saying that we help them see the show in a new light. I do this for them.
JK: And sometimes it’s still fun, like Tayshia’s season.
NS: Yes, this season was difficult, but it was always fun. It’s a reality show about dating and love – like, it’s fun. It can’t be more fun than that.