Forty stations, 18 years old, and a Black wire. If those statistics sound familiar to you, you are probably a fan of The Bachelor’s Degree In. It is also the phrase in the center of a recent campaign launched by a group of fans who are tired of the franchise of the blatant lack of diversity, and are calling for a change. Entitled The Bachelor’s Degree In The Diversity Of The Campaignthe mission of the organization is to keep the beloved franchise responsible for BIPOC representation and antiracism.
On the 8th of June, the campaign launched a petition entitled “A Campaign for the fight Against Racism in the Bachelor Franchise“, with 13 calls to action, including the casting of a Black lead in the season 25 (season 16 The Bachelorette has already cast Clare Crawley), cast BIPOC for “at least 35 percent of the contestants” while giving them equal screen time, the recruitment of a BIPOC diversity consultant, and properly vetting new entrants to prevent any person who has promoted the prejudice (“for example, ableism, racism, sexism, white supremacy, religious intolerance, homophobia, transphobia”) to be thrown.
Taking into account how the social media has been a frequent problem for the franchise lately, a thorough scour through the contestants’ accounts is really the minimum production you can do. Just to name a few incidents in the past Bachelor’s degree past: Lee Garrett was exposed on twitter a string of racist and sexist comments during Rachel Lindsay of the season, Garrett Yrigoyen “I like it” comments in the social media that make fun of feminists and transgender people, and Victoria Fuller, was involved in a controversial photo shoot. Not a good look for the franchise so far.
The the organizers of the campaign they describe themselves as a group of “diverse fans that joined in a Bachelor’s degree group of fans with a shared mission to increase BIPOC representation within the Bachelor franchise.”
“We believe that the national dialogue should be focused on black lives, but in this moment where the diversity of the issues that have been brought to the forefront, our support has to extend beyond a symbolic gesture or a single social media post,” Ria Ali, 32 years of age, a lawyer from Massachusetts who helped form the campaign, said The la Times. “The Bachelor’s Degree In it is something that in our daily lives that we spend time with and enjoy, and we feel that we have to make this place as diverse, inclusive and reflective of the principles of the struggle against racism that we’re going to donate to.”
The campaign intervened on the same day of the debut of The Bachelor’s Degree: The Higher Seasons Timethe latest installment of the franchise. The show airs a new three-hour episode of a week in which highlights a last season, and began presenting Sean Lowe’s journey to find love. As Lindsay — the single Black cable is noted on the campaign’s motto — said in a blog post addressing the franchise of the lack of diversity Monday, “be sure to tune in every Monday for all the white reasons to watch The Bachelor’s Degree: Greatest Seasons Ever as will weekly highlight what is wrong with this franchise.”
At the time of publication, the petition has sailed well beyond its initial target of 50 THOUSAND signatures, and now has almost 76K names signed. A new goal of 150K has been established with several franchise cast members to share the campaign on their social media accounts, including Lindsay, Tyler Cameron, Nick Viall, Bibiana Julian, Evan Low, Jubilee Sharpe, Chris Bukowski, Onyeka Ehie, Mykenna Dorn, and Dial Martin. Only time will tell if The Bachelor’s Degree In the franchise is here for the right reasons.
