I'm Frustrated, Chris Harrison
It’ll be no surprise to most people who know me that for the many years while casually watching an episode of The Bachelor or The Bachelorette, I often wondered why any of the lady contestants (or “ladytestants” according to my favorite reviewer Ali Barthwell) were wasting their time on the emotionally immature boys on the show when there was a hot single man available. Chris Harrison, the host, was the obvious catch to me. He was handsome, supportive, emotionally available; he wanted to talk you through your “journey” so far.
As a lifelong reader of People magazine, I remember when Chris Harrison got divorced in 2012. Since 2018 he has been happily dating Entertainment Tonight correspondent Laura Zima, who seems very much in love with him and supports the franchise that has given him over twenty years of working while traveling the world to vacation destinations three times a year and vacationing during time off in his mansion. I know I’m being reductive, but it looks like he has the best job.
For these years Chris has been the calm, supportive mentor to the contestants; the port in the storm. And he recently lost the plot on that.
(Quick aside: It’s probably a bigger surprise to people who know me that I know all of this about a reality TV show called The Bachelor since I present as someone who is above these things. I watched every episode of the first season of The Bachelorette in 2003 then took a hiatus. I dabbled a little bit in graduate school in 2015, only to return with full-fan devotion in 2017, studying it the same way I studied Shakespeare, M*A*S*H reruns, and alcohol in college. I watch The Bachelor and it’s spin-offs, I read reviews and recaps, and I’ve listened to many of the podcasts. I embarrass my friends with the depth of knowledge I have on this subject that’s probably better spent on, I don’t know, alcohol.)
The latest controversy in Bachelor Nation began with Chris Harrison’s interview with former Bachelorette Rachel Lindsay and his defense of historical racism. It has transcended the Bachelor Nation bubble into national news territory so even my most sheltered friends have heard about it. Some people are crying CANCELLED so I’ve got to break it down:
The Long History of the Problem:
The Bachelor has been on the air for 25 seasons (since 2002) during which there have been exactly three people of color cast as the romantic lead (the person who hands out the roses 🌹 on a journey to find love), all of whom have been cast in the last four years. Rachel Lindsay was the first Black Bachelorette in 2017, Tayshia Adams replaced Clare Crawley midseason as the Bachelorette in 2020 and current Bachelor Matt James was cast in 2020 for the current season. This won’t be surprising until you think about how messed up that is.
The show, the structure of which is strongly influenced by producers and editors, has historically portrayed people of color in an unfavorable light. They are given bad edits (read: angry black woman) or are otherwise tokenized or underrepresented to the point that you just know early on that the lead is not going to pick them.
The show, which has a thorough vetting process, has cast racist contestants, most notably with Lee Garrett, a contestant on Rachel Lindsey’s season. His racism was observed by other contestants on air (hey Dean!), was a plot device on the show, and was apparently concealed from Rachel, the lead. That seems dangerous, and again, not surprising until…wow.
Calls for more diversity on the show have been met with jargon about “the right time,” or “when we find the right contestant,” ambiguous, but racist language that has been accepted too passively until recently. This is a show that recently cast a bunch of 22 and 23 year old women on the premise that they were ready to accept a marriage proposal within seven weeks from a 28 year old guy who lived with his parents. It wasn’t even good TV. Tell me more about “the right contestant” and “the right time.” Tell me instead that you were afraid to cast a Black lead because you didn’t think enough people would watch it. I would believe that.
The Rachael Kirkconnell Problem:
Every year reality TV and InstaHam sleuths come forward with evidence that contestants once “liked” this or that or were embroiled in scandals that should have been picked up on in the screening process. These revelations are dealt with a few ways: 1. swept under the rug 2. the contestant is edited out abruptly 3. he or she fades into obscurity when they aren’t recast in a spinoff.
Someone found out that Rachael, who is now in the final three, appeared in photos dressed like a Native American, liked photos of friends in a picture with a Confederate flag backdrop and dressed in Mexican costumes meant to caricature, attended an Antebellum plantation-themed party, and allegedly bullied a classmate in high school for dating black guys.
Others have added to their list of grievances that she and her father supported Donald Trump for President, a topic for another day.
The Chris Harrison Problem:
On February 12, Rachel Lindsay interviewed Chris Harrison about the controversy on Extra. Chris got defensive. Regarding the Antebellum party photo, he asked, “is it a good look in 2018, or is it not a good look in 2021?” and invoked the term “woke police.” He was aggressive. He bulldozed Rachel Lindsay and didn’t listen to her. I was ready to defend Chris before I watched the whole thing myself.
Since then Chris Harrison has apologized, agreed to step away from the show for a bit, and the show brought in Emmanuel Acho from Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man to host the “After the Final Rose” episode. This is a good move. I think he should put Chris Harrison in the hot seat
Chris Harrison was on Good Morning America yesterday to address the controversy. He apologized again for his statements, condemned any harassment of Rachel Lindsay (she has fully accepted his apology), and stated that he intends to return as host.
I want Chris Harrison to return as host of The Bachelor. I don’t want him to resign and therefore avoid dealing with the topic altogether just because that’s easier. That will send the message that resolving these issues is insurmountable. I don’t think Chris Harrison is consciously racist or any more unconsciously racist than the rest of us. I want him to demonstrate what it looks like when a white man moves through these blunders the right way, in a way that shows vulnerability and works for the people he has offended. I want him to show the work. I want him to be uncomfortable. I don’t want the topic of being “cancelled” to further divide the country/viewership so that we miss the point entirely.
But as Michael Strahan pointed out after his interview with Harrison on GMA, “His apology is his apology, but it felt like I got nothing more than a surface response on any of this. Obviously he’s a man who wants to clearly stay on the show, but only time will tell if there’s any meaning behind his words.”
On GMA, Chris didn’t backpedal or defend himself in any way, tactics that could have landed him in more quicksand. But he also didn’t address the larger problem at hand, namely WHY he defended Rachael Kirkconnell so strongly. I think he could offer more reflection on his actions that would show the machinations behind the way he initially responded, which would teach much of the audience why it is wrong. The problem is bigger than Chris or The Bachelor, but as they say in writing school, “the more specific, the more universal,” or something like that.
Here’s what I want to know:
Did he feel pressure to defend Kirkconnell because ABC wanted this issue to pass quickly? Were they breathing down his neck to present this situation in the best light? Was he protective over Kirkconnell because, like him, she was under immense pressure from ABC and millions of people on the Internet to say the right thing in response to her past actions, the consequences of which she had likely never previously considered? Did they value their respective responses more than the feelings of those they offended?
Can Chris admit that at the time of the interview on Extra, he didn’t know or fully understand why the topic blew up this time? Can he admit that he assumed the topic would just go away?
Chris has children who are not much younger than Rachael. Even though they have presented 23 year old Rachael on TV as someone who is READY FOR MARRIAGE, he must know that is not true. She has not made conscious decisions about the broader implications of attending Antebellum parties or dressing up as a Native American. Matt James likely chooses her at the end of the show, a show that believes in its own premise of finding true love. What does it say about the show that Matt and Rachael had not addressed some of these topics themselves before choosing to commit to a lifetime together? What does it say about a show that usually exploits its contestants deepest vulnerabilities in the name of true love that it didn’t broach the topic of her beliefs or her upbringing?
I want to hear from Chris, if its true, that until recently he too didn’t fully appreciate how harmful it could be for BIPOC to see photos of people dressed up as caricatures of Native Americans or attending a party that celebrates the “Old South,” even though he understood why it was offensive in a general way. Until Rachel Lindsay said in the interview with him, “If I went to that party, what would I represent at that party?” can he admit he never really thought of it that way?
Many colleges and universities (and their Greek systems) have only recently begun condemning these parties that celebrate the Old South. Kappa Alpha Order banned Old South themed parties in 2016, but the Georgia College chapter of the fraternity chose to ignore the rules and hosted the formal Rachael attended in 2018. Until education systems do a better job of addressing these issues, you will have young, impressionable people like Rachael who succumb to peer/institutional pressure and attend these parties without thinking of the broader implications of it.
That doesn’t make it excusable. We need to talk about it without excusing the behavior. That requires more vulnerability than we’ve seen so far from Chris, who has a duty to address these topics as host of the show, and more nuance than we’ve seen in some of the reactions so far, including from those who outright condemn Chris Harrison and Rachel Kirkconnell.
Chris Harrison apologized for putting his foot in his mouth. Now he’s taken it out and explained in no uncertain terms that that was wrong! So wrong. Yes, it’s wrong. He’s an “imperfect man.” He removed his foot, his foot is a clean foot now, and he’s ready to return.
I hope Chris Harrison can have these uncomfortable conversations with Emmanuel Acho. What if he can admit how and why his response fell short? What if he shows us how he’s ready to listen and learn? This show could become a good example of confronting historical racism and how it hurts people on national television and how we can discuss these issues in real time— reality TV! Social justice! On The Bachelor! Maybe I’m stuck in a fantasy. But maybe my friends will stop making fun of me for liking it.