Matt James as the first black Bachelor can't right the show's "racist history"

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-bachelor-cant-right-its-racist-history-with-black-lead-matt-james

"It’s a positive, if long overdue, sign that the franchise is beginning to take its race problem seriously," says Laura Bradley of this morning's announcement. "But as longtime fans of the franchise well know, it’ll take more than one Black lead to make amends for this franchise’s past failures on race. That The Bachelor is only now announcing its first Black lead, amid widespread Black Lives Matter protests in response to the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other Black Americans by police, is ironic, given the fact that the show almost had a Black Bachelor this year. Mike Johnson, a frontrunner during Hannah Brown’s season, was a top candidate for the role—but producers snubbed him, choosing instead the shockingly uncharismatic walking train wreck Peter Weber. (Hannah Brown, ironically, has spent the past few weeks apologizing for using the N-word while singing a song on Instagram Live.) The Matt James announcement, made on Friday’s Good Morning America, comes after Rachel Lindsay, the first Black Bachelorette, threatened to cut ties with the Bachelor-verse should producers fail to name a Black Bachelor for the upcoming season. She and several other candidates signed a Change.org petition calling for a Black lead in Season 25."