The Bachelors First Black Lead, Matt James!
The Black Lives Matter movement has made it all over the world and is influencing pop culture everywhere, now even inspiring a Bachelor first!
It was just announced on Good Morning America that the newest Bachelor will be Matt James! BN fans will recognize him as drool-inducing Tyler Cameron's best friend and roommate. Tyler was 3rd runner up on Hannah Brown season of the Bachelorette and Matt signed up to be a part of Clare Crawley's suitors.
Clare and Matt clashed a bit before even filming when Clare had a problem with Matt doing cameos until it came out that he was an influencer before cast for her season and 100% of the proceeds were going to a coronavirus relief charity.
Recently the only other Black lead Rachel Lindsay called on ABC to cast a more diverse lead and declared she would separate herself from ABC if a Black Bachelor was not cast. Since its premiere in 2002, there have been 24 seasons of the Bachelor and 15 of the Bachelorette and Rachel has been the only Black lead.
Matt said: "When Rachel speaks, we listen. She has a very important voice in all this, being the first black woman, person of color to be a lead, and ... this is hopefully the first of many black men to be in the position I'm at now."
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Bachelor Nation also accrued 84,000 signatures on a petition to have the Bachelor cast a person of color. Air Force veteran and Bachelor Nation fan-favorite Mike Johnson was also in the running for the Bachelor, but ultimately, Matt was selected.
Sweet and goofy Matt is the founder of ABC Food Tours whose goal "is to implement an experiential learning platform for students in NYC living in underserved communities that will educate, motivate, and inspire them to overcome life’s obstacles."
"We believe that by surrounding students with restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, & immigrant business owners who have all overcome similar hardships they can begin to envision these realities for themselves."
Rob Mills, an executive for ABC, said they Matt is aware of the extra pressure this will put on him being a first "But what you never want is for somebody to feel like they are the Bachelor because they are checking off a box. The same way with Mike, there were so other things that would have made him a great Bachelor, and it was the same thing with Rachel. Yes, she was the first Black Bachelorette, and there has been a lot of weight that’s been put on her shoulders, but she was ‘The Bachelorette’ because, first and foremost, she was a great Bachelorette."
Hopefully, the network will continue with efforts to diversify the beloved show and Mills promised "This is just the beginning and we will continue to take action with regard to diversity issues on this franchise. We feel so privileged to have Matt as our first Black Bachelor and we cannot wait to embark on this journey with him."
Skeptical Clare Crawley may also be relieved as her suitors will know for certain they will not be in the running for the next Bachelor so "they should really all be there only for Clare."
Congratulations, Matt! Ladies, time to sign up for a shot at Matt's heart!
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