Rachel Lindsay suggests there’s a double standard at the “Bachelorette.”
She says that ABC expected her, as the first black “Bachelorette,” to be “damn near perfect” — but somehow managed to hire a violent white woman.
On her “Higher Learning” podcast, Lindsay called out the network for casting Taylor Frankie Paul as its latest hopeful , saying Paul — who was caught on film attacking her then-partner — “obviously should’ve never been the ‘Bachelorette.’”
“It was funny to me that the show wanted to take the risk, but for you to have a lead of color – that was too risky,” she said.
Lindsay said when the network decided “we were going to have our first lead of color…which took 15 years, that person had to be damn near perfect on paper because that had to make sense for your audience,” she said.
She told co-host Van Lathan that, “It was too risky for me to be opinionated and to have a personality,” due to the network’s fear of her coming across as “an angry black woman.”
Frankie Paul’s controversial casting came with a load of baggage – even before the network canned her season after TMZ published a video of her violently throwing a chair at her now-ex in front of her children, three days before the season’s premiere.
On another podcast, sports analyst Emmanuel Acho, who hosted a special for the franchise in 2021, said he underwent “severe” background checks before he was even asked to host.
“I say that to say the franchise knew everything you needed to know about this woman, and they turned a blind eye. And that to me, is disgusting,” he said.
A spokesperson for ABC’s parent company Disney, did not comment.
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