Rachel Lindsay – who was the first black woman to ever serve as a titular Bachelorette, has regularly placed herself in the position of criticism, mediation, and exposing the franchise’s many problems related to racing – has now shut down her Instagram account after “fans” of the show become toxic and insulting to her had become. This, in the wake of the controversy that currently surrounds the controversial reality series, as a long-time host Chris Harrison announced that he “got outside from the show for a while in the wake of an interview with Lindsay in which he went way on the defensive on behalf of a contestant who was being photographed participate in a “Plantation Party” evoking the style and aesthetics of slave-owning Antebellum South.
In her role as Additional correspondent, Lindsay ran, with self-confidence, a incredibly complex cord in that interview, one that Black of wife are often asked to perform-simultaneously come off as a well-deserved moral voice outrage, a cool and objective assessor of the issues shown, and a warm and sympathetic TV presence. (Harrison, meanwhile, wandered about the “ awakened police, ” trying to insist that no one knew he shouldn’t dress up as a slave owner in 2018.) All this, for her effort, delivered her the daunting but not unexpected wave of online abuse that followed.
Per Variety, Lindsay’s departure from social media was announced by her podcast co-host Van Lathan, who noted on his own social media that his friend “Did it because that’s how much hate she gets Bachelor education fans, spamming her with all kinds of rude, hateful things to say. (He also took a few pictures at Harrison and called him “a 49-year-old man who cannot read the audience in this current 2021 time. ”)
Rachael Kirkconnell, the Bachelor education contestant whose photos started this latest iteration of The Bachelor: Still has race issues, huh? has since then joined many other voices from the franchise asking fans not to attack Lindsay for her reasonable questioning of both Kirkconnell’s own actions and Harrison’s statements.
There’s no word yet on when Harrison is expected to return to the franchise.
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