‘Bachelor’ Alums Sign Petition In Effort To Get African-American Lead

Nick Viall and Rachel Lindsay via Instagram

Bachelor Nation is taking a stand. Bachelor alumni and fans are signing a petition in light of the protests surrounding George Floyd. They are hoping to change the franchise. They want producers to choose an African-American lead for Season 25. So far, Rachel Lindsay has been the only person of color to fill the leading role of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette.

Bachelor fans and alumni are signing petition

People shared details about the circulating petition and who has signed it. The petition not only calls for a black lead, it also call on creator Mike Fleiss to overall cast more people of color. On Tuesday over 47,000 had signed the petition.

Former Bachelor Nick Viall called out fans on Twitter. He said, “320,000 of you saw my tweet…there have been many other posts….less than 60k have signed this.”

The petition says the lack of diversity within The Bachelor franchise is unacceptable. It states, “Representation matters, and it is one of the most important ways our country can embrace its diversity and evolve.” There are 13 requests in the petition. One, of course, calling for the Season 25 Bachelor lead to be black. Another request wants at least 35% of contestants to be persons of color. And, they want adequate screen time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CBGevCDn3qJ/

They want to ensure there is no racism and no stereotyping

The Bachelor petition also says they want the franchise to apologize. The want them to “issue a public statement apologizing for enabling systemic racism within the franchise and offer a clear plan for demonstrable anti-racism efforts moving forward.”

Some of The Bachelor alums to sign the petition include, Rachel, Nick Viall, Olivia Caridi, Kaitlyn Bristowe, Lauren Burnham, Tyler Cameron and Ashley Spivey.

Rachel Lindsay speaks out about Bachelor diversity issues

Rachel has said that if things do not change she will terminate her relationship with the franchise. She said, “When you’re putting out something that is very white washed and doesn’t have any type of color in it and you’re not trying to be effective and change that … I think that they have to at this point, give us a black Bachelor for season 25.” She continued saying she won’t continue with the franchise if things do not change.

Rachel has been very vocal about wanting more diversity in the franchise. She recently called out Hannah Brown who mistakenly said the N-word on Instagram Live. Rachel also told Becca Kufrin her fiance Garrett is part of the problem.

Time will tell if things change within The Bachelor franchise. What are your thoughts? Have you signed?

 

 

Jamie Colclasure

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