After 25 Seasons, ABC Decides To Cast Matt James As The First Black Lead On “The Bachelor”
There’s a new Bachelor joining Bachelor Nation and he’s making history.
Matt James has been picked to become the next man looking for love on the show.
He will also become the show’s first Black male lead.
Matt was originally cast to be one of the contestants on Clare Crawley’s season of The Bachelorette, but production was forced to shut down due to the pandemic.
The first Black Bachelorette lead, Rachel Lindsay was featured on the show back in 2017.
Lindsay shared that this was another step in the right direction but added,
“This announcement, without further commitments regarding diversity, sweepingly brushes deeper issues under the rug. Until we see other action to address the systemic racism within the franchise, the casting news today is equivalent to the trend of posting a black box on your social media account without taking other steps to dismantle the systems of injustice.”
ABC also said,
“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.”
