Although ABC made history by announcing Matt James as the first Black male lead of The Bachelor, the bold move hasn’t stopped fans and critics alike from calling out deep-seated diversity issues still present within the franchise.
Jazzy Collins, a former producer on Rachel Lindsay‘s (pictured inset) season of The Bachelorette, is the latest to speak up about the show’s bad behavior, claiming Black female contestants and staffers like herself were being marginalized behind the scenes.
Related: Matt James Becomes The First Ever Black Leading Man On The Bachelor!
On the same day following James’ Bachelor announcement, Collins took to her Instagram page and shared an open letter about her experience working on the dating series, tagging all official accounts affiliated with the show. She began:
“During my time at The Bachelor/Bachelorette, I was the only Black person in the casting office from when I was hired for casting the first season of a Black Bachelorette through the four seasons I worked on afterwards. While working on Rachel Lindsay’s season of the show, we were called on to have a very diverse cast. It was my first season of the show, and I was excited to be an integral part of the show’s history. My hope was that having a racially diverse cast of gentlemen would be an important milestone that would continue into the future. That was not the case.”
Jazzy claimed that after Lindsay’s season as the lead, things “went back to status quo” and the cast was “predominantly white” again. She continued:
“The only Black women that were picked to be in the running had weaves or chemically straightened hair, were ‘ethnically ambiguous,’ or were not considered if they were ‘too Black.’ Women with afros, braids, locs, etc; weren’t even given a chance because of the white standards of beauty.”
The former producer said when she found her voice and began speaking up on these discrepancies and social issues at the office, she was hit with “microaggressions” and “called aggressive” by her peers. Additionally, upon leaving the series, she found out that one of the only other Black producers on staff had exited for similar reasons. Ugh… seriously, ABC?!? That is serious bulls**t!
Later in her post, Collins commented on James’ casting and admitted while she is glad to see a Black man in the spotlight, she’s disappointed that “it took a pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement” to finally make it happen:
“You only cast the token Black person, Asian person or Latinx person to satisfy what you believe to be the needs of the viewers.”
Ultimately, she asked for the network to ensure there are diverse cast and crew members for season 25. You can read her statement in full (below):
Related: Rachel Lindsay Says Bachelor Franchise Needs To Hire More POC Producers
On the heels of the new Bachelor casting, the network shared a statement where they promised to do right by its diverse audience this time around:
“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.”
Time will tell if they actually follow through and take action with regards to these diversity issues… but with the whole world watching and waiting to hold them accountable, they better not screw this one up!
[Image via WENN/Avalon/Jazzy Collins/Instagram]
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