Introducing the First Black Bachelorette: Race, Diversity, and Courting Without Commitment

Abstract

Since its premiere in 2002, The Bachelor (ABC) and its spinoffs have entertained television audiences with their depiction of individuals vying for love. However, the franchise has been critiqued for the lack of racial diversity in its contestant pool. This article examines the racialized and gendered logics of representation that frame the casting of the first black Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay. This article discusses the industrial conditions of possibility at the ABC network that led to Lindsay’s casting in 2017, which center on the cultivation of diversity in primetime programming. Yet the courting of a black female lead is done without a commitment to the specificities of targeting a black woman to be at the forefront of the competition to find love. This article details the construction of the African American female lead’s romantic journey and audience response at the intersections of race, gender, and the cultural politics of desire.