The Bachelorette's Rachel Lindsay: Producers on my season purposefully cast Black men who "didn't date Black women"

Us Weekly

Lindsay was asked on Ziwe's Showtime variety show why The Bachelor franchise's three Black leads -- Lindsay, Tayshia Adams and Matt James -- have all ended up with "partners who are not of color.” Lindsay said part of that was the casting. “It’s something I was worried about before I went on the show,” Lindsay said. “I think I got a little bit more grace because I was the first (Black lead) and people were just excited that a person of color was in this role. But then I think when the next person chose someone that wasn’t Black, and then by the time we got to the third one, it was like, ‘You know what, they’re just not going to choose anybody that’s Black.'” Lindsay added: “I also learned as I was going through my season that several of the Black men on my season didn’t date Black women.” After approaching the show’s producers to find out more, Lindsay was apparently told that the team “found it interesting” to explore the journeys of Black men who hadn’t connected with women of color on a romantic level before. “I said, ‘You think that’s interesting? That’s my life. I live that,'” she recalled.