ABC’s “The Bachelor” franchise has sure had its share of discrimination issues, and Monday night’s episode of “The Bachelorette” proved that the show’s producers probably don’t know how to weed out the racists.
One contestant, Andrew, allegedly called two other African-American contestants “blackies” during an earlier rose ceremony and hinted that they were only allowed to advance in the competition because of their race.
One of the men, Marquel, expresses his anger and frustration at the situation. “It’s crazy to think the first thing people are going to recognize about me is ‘OK, he’s a black guy,'” he said, choking back tears. “It would be nice to not be seen as, ‘Hey, this is the black guy.’ But I guess that’s what it is.” He later confronts Andrew about the remark only to here a denial. Both men are sent home without the rose.
This drama comes hot on the heels of last season’s “Bachelor” Juan Pablo Galavis, who caused a stir when he said that a gay or bisexual season of the show would set “bad example for children to watch.” He also called gays “pervert(ed).”
Yet, even the show’s host Chris Harrison looked down on the idea of a gay “Bachelor” during a New York Times interview, suggesting that it wouldn’t be “a good business decision.”
“Look, if you’ve been making pizzas for 12 years and you’ve made millions of dollars and everybody loves your pizzas and someone comes and says, ‘Hey, you should make hamburgers.’ Why?” said Harrison. “I have a great business model, and I don’t know if hamburgers are going to sell.”
There was also a lawsuit in which two African American men wanted a federal judge to make the show cast a black lead, as its bachelors and bachelorettes had been consistently white for 16 seasons. The suit was subsequently thrown out. ABC has since cast only one “non-Caucasian” star, Latino Juan Pablo, and the diversity of its cast remains pretty low.
After Monday night’s episode, a Twitter campaign begged for Marquel to be cast as the “Bachelor” for next season. To that, Chris Harrison would probably say that hamburgers might not sell.
