So many people have latched onto the Bachelor and it’s companion show the Bachelorette that it’s become a well-known phenomenon throughout the year. But unfortunately there is a stigma that goes along with the show, and it’s a sense of the racist attitudes that seem to be fostered by the program itself.
You might be rolling your eyes or blowing out a breath at this point as you prepare for another rant on why the show is so racist against people color and/or different ethnic groups, but hang with me. It’s not so much an article depicting what’s wrong with the show, it’s about what’s wrong with the viewers as well.
Did that get your attention? Well let me explain then.
TV networks are fairly skilled at learning what will elicit a reaction from audiences.
It could be something as blatant as keeping a contestant that seems to be hated by the rest of the cast and even the viewers or even something as innocuous as the fact that people of color and other races don’t seem to last as long on a show that is predominantly white most times. On the Bachelor any woman that is not Caucasian might last for a while, but on the Bachelorette it is seen quite often, until now, that men of color and other races do not last nearly as long as Caucasian men.
The point can be argued all day but the truth of the matter is that representation of color on both shows has been anything but even over the years. The show tends to favor a Caucasian audience and thus casts those that viewers will identify with . The difference as of now is that the Bachelorette’s most recent cast has featured a successful African-American woman. While this alone is not enough for a reaction, the tensions between the obvious villain of the show, Lee, and several others within the house are more than enough to get people’s attention.
People love drama.
The reason why Lee was not removed sooner is simple: people love to see drama. Even if they comment that it is pointless and not needed the truth is that they will keep watching in order to see what happens. Some will claim they care about the show because they want to see decent programming, but others will be honest at least and state that they wish to see a fight break out. It’s an immutable fact that people love to see conflict, and racism in the show is one reason why people watch.
They tune in to see the conflict and the issues that people bring to the show, especially when it’s racially motivated. Such drama is low television at its worst, but unfortunately this is what gets higher ratings. For all that people state that they don’t like conflict they will flip to the show immediately if they’re told that something is going down between one contestant and another.
The sad part is that this true of virtually any show on TV today. Racism is still very much alive despite the fact that without TV adding fuel to fire it might affect people to a much lesser degree.
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