After years of people complaining that The Bachelor is not diverse enough, today, ABC announced that they will have their first Black Bachelor in 2021. Matt James, who is supposed to be on the upcoming edition of The Bachelorette, is the next suitor in the franchise.
The Bachelorette’s filming was put on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic. After they stopped filming, James joined cameo, and the Bachelorette Clare Crowley called him out on it. Even though he said he was donating the money to charity. Since then, people have been wondering if he would still be part of her season when production finally resumes. Something, we do not know.
What we also know about James is that he is best friends with Tyler Cameron, who appeared on Hannah Brown’s season of The Bachelorette. The two men are living together during the lockdown. This makes us suspect that he will probably help out his friend pick his eventual bride.
Now that we got that out of the way let’s find out why ABC picked him to be their 25th Bachelor. Karey Burke, president, ABC Entertainment: “Matt has been on our radar since February, when producers first approached him to join Bachelor Nation, as part of Clare’s season. When filming couldn’t move forward as planned, we were given the benefit of time to get to know Matt and all agreed he would make a perfect Bachelor. We know we have a responsibility to make sure the love stories we’re seeing onscreen are representative of the world we live in, and we are proudly in service to our audience. This is just the beginning, and we will continue to take action with regard to diversity issues on this franchise. We feel so privileged to have Matt as our first Black Bachelor and we cannot wait to embark on this journey with him.”
Having a Black Bachelor is one thing, but will there also be plenty of women, who are people of color, for him to choose to date? Something only about half of the men were during Rachel Lindsay’s season. She was the only other Black person to lead of season of the show. If you are going to do it, do it right.
