Wouldn’t Get Far…
How Racism and Colorism Effects the Black Women of Bachelor Nation
Many fans and Bachelor content creators will applaud Clayton for being the first white lead who showed genuine interest in multiple Black women. He gave the first impression to Teddi. She made the final six women on her season. Serene even made it to hometowns. For a fraction of a second, I had hopes that Serene would make it past hometowns, but here we are. Serene’s time on the show left no indication of tonight’s ending, making her exit even more raw and abrupt. How much should we be patting Clayton on the back for barely doing more than the typical Bachelor regarding seeing, loving, and elevating the Black women in his cast? Not to mention how the darker-skinned women on his season fared. I’m not going to extend credit for Clayton doing barely above the bare minimum. Sorry, but this season was more of the same.
Colorism is an unspoken phantom looming over the Black contestants of Bachelor Nation. It’s not that hard to see that the Black women who fare the best in the franchise are lighter-skinned, racially ambiguous women. The few darker-skinned Black women who have gained notoriety in the fan base have endured trauma due to colorism like Natasha, erasures of their storyline like Tahzjuan, or constant scrutiny like Rachel Lindsay.
If you think this unfair treatment only applies to Black women, you’re wrong. The same thing can be said for the Black men of Bachelor Nation. The most visible Black males are lighter-skinned as well. While Michelle’s final four was composed of Black men, they benefited from their light-skinned privilege and proximity to whiteness. The darker-skinned men were eliminated long before the audience had the chance to see them and love them beyond a surface level “I stan this contestant so you can’t say I’m racist” from the few fans who show a perfunctory obligation to being semi-aware that Bachelor Nation has a white privilege and colorism problem.
Many fans and people dating in real life will use preference as an excuse for why Black contestants are likely not to end up as the final one chosen by the lead. However, the concept of preference is steeped in both racism and colorism. To date, there has not been a Black woman who was the last woman standing on proposal day unless she was the one handing out the roses.
One of the unacknowledged problems with colorism is that it makes it hard for Black viewers to champion the Black contestants on the show without getting hit with criticism (frequently by non-Black fans and creators)for simply saying the contestant is Black. I get that there are complexities to being a biracial person in America. Still, I am tired of every single Black moment that happens on the show being questioned and diluted when Black fans and creators simply use the word Black to describe a contestant.
We have to be constantly aware that Black people are barely allowed in this white space. We’re supposed to be grateful for the representation and screen time we get and not ask for anything more. Black women must be perfect, calm, funny, sexy, and meek. Never can we express our genuine emotions and complexities, and those same parameters are used to excuse why Black women aren’t followed and supported by Bachelor Nation. When Black women contestants are constricted to limited emotional range on the most dramatic television show, our full humanity is never displayed.
Bachelor Nation has a colorism problem even after we’ve had two Black couples from the show in recent seasons. Proximity to whiteness, unfortunately, determines which Black Bachelor Nation stars can use this opportunity to find love and experience the same benefits as their white counterparts who appear on the show.
I’ll know Bachelor Nation has arrived when one of the many beautiful darker-skinned Black women who have appeared on the series over the years gets the same love, respect, attention, and opportunities as her white and lighter-skinned contemporaries.
So while the needle has moved slightly forward, we know screen time does not equal followers because ya’ll are still showing yourselves in plain sight by who you follow and support.
In sum, we’ve got work to do, and this season has been another predictable disappointment in actual progress as expected. Serene had every characteristic as her other cast members, yet the same outcome occurred. We’re back to seasons past yet again. Black women deserve to be seen and chosen. All our complexities deserve to be shown. As Michelle posted on her page, Black is beautiful, and yes, that means EVERY shade. It will never cease to amaze me how this show and viewers hype up your mediocre copy and paste favorites when all these beautiful Black women exist.
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Ashley