Story at a glance
- This season of “The Bachelor” featured the franchise’s first Black bachelor, putting race at the center of the conversation.
- The season has been disrupted by revelations of racism, apologies and the departure of long-time host Chris Harrison.
- The season finale was hosted by Emmanuel Acho, host of the video series “Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man.”
“This has never happened before.”
Whether you’re a longtime fan of Bachelor Nation or new to the franchise, you’ve probably heard those words before, whether or not it was true. In the case of the grand finale of “The Bachelor” this season, however, the sentiment was both true and an understatement.
For starters, Chris Harrison wasn’t there to deliver the twist, as he has been for 25 seasons and some change, counting the multiple spin-offs from the franchise. The former host appeared in the filmed segments, but not the live interview with the first Black bachelor in franchise history.
“As a Black person, there’s an extra level of scrutiny when you’re the first of something, and you want to make sure that you’re on your best behavior in terms of how you’re speaking, how you present yourself. Because, for a lot of people, that was the first time having someone like myself in their home,” said Matt James, a 29-year-old real estate broker from New York, told Emmanuel Acho, who hosted the live segment of the show, which has averaged almost 5 million viewers this season (mostly white women).
Acho is a former NFL linebacker and host of the video series “Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man,” not to be confused with the season finale, although it was certainly uncomfortable at moments.
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A recap: Last month, after the fifth episode of the season, reports revealed that contestant Rachael Kirkconnell, who is white — a relevant descriptor — had liked a post of friends posing in front of a Confederate flag, shared an Instagram post with language similar to the QAnon extremist ideology, dressed in a Native American costume and attended an “Old South” antebellum-themed party in college. As it turns out, she’s the one James chose at the end of the season, which was filmed before these images surfaced.
“I have not spoken to anybody since the show ended, but I would say that you have to be really careful about what you are doing on social media. Rumors are dark and nasty and can ruin people’s lives. So I would give people the benefit of the doubt, and hopefully she will have her time to speak on that,” James told Entertainment Tonight at the time.
The controversy got even bigger when Harrison stepped in to defend Kirkconnell in a conversation with Rachel Lindsay, the franchise’s first Black bachelorette, pushing back when she explained the racism behind the imagery. The conversation also came in the context of a year when the racism of Confederate symbols has both been on display and under scrutiny.
“The things that were boiling to me the most were the compassion, and the grace, and the space that Chris Harrison wanted to give to Rachael, but couldn’t give it to this Rachel right here in the interview, couldn’t give it to the people that were offended by the things that she did. Where was the compassion for them?” Lindsay said in an episode of her podcast “Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay.”
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Both Harrison and Kirkconnell have since apologized, but not before they faced consequences.
“Being completely honest, I didn’t think about it one time. Because at that point, you know, it was just me taking some photos with my friends,” Kirkconnell told Acho during the season finale. “I didn’t think of the trauma that it would cause.”
— Chris Harrison (@chrisbharrison) February 11, 2021
Harrison has since announced that he would be “stepping aside” temporarily, although he provided voice-overs during the finale. Kirkconnell and James have broken off their relationship.
“The most disappointing thing for me was having to explain to you why what I saw was problematic and why I was so upset. And that’s why it was problematic,” he told Kirkconnell during the finale, going on to explain that “when I questioned our relationship, it was in the context of you not fully understanding my Blackness and what it means to be a Black man in America. And what it would mean for our kids when I saw those things that were floating around the Internet. And it broke my heart, because this is the last conversation I thought we’d be having.”
It’s certainly not the last conversation about race Bachelor Nation will be having, at least if Harrison can help it.
“I plan to be back and I want to be back. And I think this franchise can be an important beacon of change,” he told Good Morning America. “I know that change is felt, not just by me, but by many others. And we are excited and willing to do the work to show that progress.”
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