According to former Casting Producer Jazzy Collins, The Bachelor hiring staff have been discriminating against applicants of color. Collins was a casting producer on The Bachelor for five seasons before leaving the show. She is now casting Netflix’s The Circle.
Many have been calling for The Bachelor, a historically white franchise, to include more racial diversity in its shows and behind the scenes. The Bachelor Diversity Campaign launched a petition for anti-racism in the franchise, which has since gained over 160,000 signatures. Former Bachelorette, Rachel Lindsay, previously said she would distance herself from the franchise if they failed to diversify in the future. Soon after, the franchise announced its first Black lead for The Bachelor, Matt James. Tayshia Adams, a Black woman, will also be replacing former Bachelorette lead, Clare Crawley.
Collins revealed how The Bachelor casting producers discriminated against her and BIPOC applicants in a post on her Instagram page. At the time, Collins, a Black woman, was the only Black person on the casting team. She began her time at the franchise casting Lindsay’s season of The Bachelorette. For Lindsay’s season, they were encouraged to cast a diverse group of men, but the emphasis on diversity was abandoned in following casting decisions. “My hope was that having a racially diverse cast of gentlemen would be an important milestone that would continue into the future,” Collins wrote. “That was not the case.” When casting for The Bachelor, producers only considered BIPOC women with chemically straightened hair who could be considered “ethnically ambiguous.” When Collins tried to speak up on issues of diversity she was called “aggressive,” a stereotype commonly associated with Black women, and faced with many other microaggressions. Take a look at Collins' post for yourself below:
More recently, The Bachelor Diversity Campaign reported Collins had become aware of discriminatory behaviors of hiring staff towards a Black producer applying to work at The Bachelor franchise. In a statement provided for The Bachelor Diversity Campaign, Collins wrote a Black Emmy-nominated producer was told by hiring staff they would have to start at an entry-level position and move up in the company from within. Collins herself was not hired at an entry-level position when she joined the franchise. “Don’t force overqualified BIPOC applicants into entry-level positions,” Collins wrote. “Hire BIPOC in executive roles. As I stated before, your EIC is white, your Casting Director is white, your (Executive Producers) are white. It’s time you add BIPOC into these roles if you want change!” Take a look at Collins' second statement in the tweet below:
If Collins' allegations are true, it would demonstrate a systemic disregard and discrimination towards Black employees and applicants. If Black employees are discriminated against in the hiring process, there will never be qualified employees to fill Black executive roles in the future.
As long as the franchise fails to cast BIPOC employees in behind-the-scenes roles, executive positions specifically, the franchise will continue to cast ethnically ambiguous or white-passing BIPOC contestants to appease what they see as the bare minimum diversity requirement. A systemic pattern of racist behaviors behind the scenes seems to indicate current steps towards diversifying show front runners is nothing more than a token effort to quell audience complaints.
Source: Jazzy Collins, Bachelor Diversity Campaign