Amy, in your studies of The Bachelor/Bachelorette, do you know what behind the scenes of production is like? But for him to be like, “It didn’t mean the same thing in 2018.” The Confederacy’s been over since like 1868. He could have been very easily been like, it was a mistake and she made a mistake and she’s acknowledging that mistake. But she keeps getting dragged into this to come and teach Chris Harrison who made, again, an unforced error on his part defending Rachel.

She should very happily be off doing her own thing. There’s literally no reason for this to be happening. Hampton: Especially after how badly Rachel Lindsay was treated on her season, the shit that she put up with from the Bachelor producers, for her to have to turn around and then do unpaid labor to teach them not be racist is crazy. It’s their job to figure out how to not be racist themselves. It’s not Rachel’s Lindsay’s job to teach Bachelor Nation and Chris Harrison not to be racist. Moylan: I do think it’s unfortunate that we keep laying teaching people not to be racist at the feet of Black people. Smith: I don’t think there is an argument against it because she condemned racism and that’s what we all should be doing or aspire to do. I’ve watched a lot of Real Housewives reunions in my day, and this seemed like the most acrimonious room I have ever witnessed on reality television. It all just seemed nuts to me that Victoria is on there talking to Ryan and equating her pain with being made fun of on the internet with her calling Ryan a hoe and a slut and whatever else she said about her. I just couldn’t believe that it was basically a bunch of white women complaining that the internet was mean to them after they were mean to women of color. Mariah Smith: What did you all think of these past couple of episodes?īrian Moylan: I thought that the Women Tell All was crazy.

These are edited excerpts from the conversation. In the lead-up to the finale of The Bachelor’s 21 st season, culture critics Mariah Smith, Rachelle Hampton, Brian Moylan, and Amy Kaufman gathered for a Slate Live discussion of the season, which has been marked by a controversy that resulted in the temporary (for now) removal of the series’ longtime host, Chris Harrison.

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