Rachel & Bryan Abasolo - Bachelorette 13 - Discussion - #3

step back from the franchise but she just had a podcast this week about katie's season... a very very little sept back IMO

I don’t understand the reasoning behind “she signed the dotted line”. She didn’t sign off her life to Mike Fleiss this time, she was contracted to write an article in a respected magazine. The headline they choose didn’t represent the content at all. Instead, it basically expressed the feelings of her worst haters, the “Bachelor Klan”.
That’s unexpected to say the least.

What I don’t like about the article is that she involved Vanessa, Peter and, to some extent, Becca. It was beside the point, and she was kicking down again. Unnecessary.
Everything else was really interesting. You understand how much the franchise still has to learn.
JMO

I really appreciated  the article that was written by Rachel.  She told her truth, and I remember when we spent  a lot of time sleuthing her season, so what she wrote was not a surprise.  In my opinion, many of the comments Rachel has made were her opinions.  She is opinionated, and has been paid to do podcasts based on those opinions.  From my point of view, there has been a double standard when it comes to Rachel and other people in bachelor nation.  I have seen Kaitlyn and Ashley S. make harsher statements about others and haven’t seen the level of disrespect or hate Rachel received.  She is human, and for the most part she has been respectful with her opinions (Her comment about Becca’s ex Garrett was disrespectful in my opinion).

I think this is where most of her grievances lies.  She hoped there would be change to BN, but it has been the same old recycled drama.  She didn’t watch the series before, and thought she could make a difference.  She told the producers during filming her thoughts, hoping  her voice would be heard.  She told the listening audience her opinion again, hoping her voice would be heard.  She posted her opinions  on social media, again hoping her voice would be heard.  In my opinion, she was metaphorically slapped in the face for daring to disrupt a franchise that had a long history of ignoring people of color.  I will be honest, after the first season of the bachelorette, I didn’t watch it because I didn’t feel represented as a black woman.  My first full season of viewing The Bachelorette  was Rachel’s season, and besides the happy ending with Bryan, I did not like the show.  In my opinion, as a black woman, it was evident that many of the black men were not into women of color (Excluding Kenny, Josiah and Eric).  Also, many of the white contestants were not into women of color either, and Rachel, in my opinion had a deficit in terms of eligible men to choose from.  The fact that I felt this as I was watching the season was confirmed when I read her article.

As a black woman, in my opinion, it is very difficult to mask frustrations when it is coming from every where all the time.  We come off as “aggressive, mean, angry, and opinionated”.  For example, I am a producer for a morning news and entertainment program.  For many years, I was the only black woman in production, especially for a local news affiliate in Missouri.  When there were stories being pitched during our production meetings, I would explain that some of the stories were not a true representation of our community and I thought the stories were exploiting stereotypes in the black community.  I was accused of making everything about race, and I should not bite the hand that feeds me because there were many women who would love to have my position.  I had to suppress my true feelings a lot, but a lot of what I was feeling was evident in my facial expressions.  I was told to “smile more” or  when I was fed up with suppressing my feelings, I would hear “You always have something to say.  I didn’t ask for your opinion”. After securing a job in Northern California, I wrote my letter of resignation and included all of my grievances.  Because I was leaving, I felt that I found my voice for the first time, and it felt very therapeutic.  In my opinion, Rachel leaving Bachelor Nation gave her that same opportunity to use her voice for the first time without consequences.  This was her therapeutic  “letter of resignation” that she needed to write in my humble opinion.

Finally, she signed a contract with New York Magazine to pen a piece for their magazine, and they were able to give her the agency she needed to tell her truth.  However, in my opinion, I think that even though they owned the rights to the headline, it was a clickbait and misrepresented the thesis of her writing.  The same manipulation she felt when filming was again on display in the form of the headline.  It is like the purpose of her essay went right over their heads.  It is a shame because people are going to read the headline and be justified in their hatred for her.  Personally, her writing captured a lot of  my struggles, and her voice is very similar to mine.

@Terps4life thank you so much for such a thoughtful post.

I am an Asian American immigrant,  so I am honest to admit I did not fully understand the American history, especially from the Black American perspective, but Rachel inspires me to learn more. I don’t have to agree with everything she says, but I appreciate her to make me think outside of my comfort zone.

IMO, this article is more of her reflection of her BN experiences. It’s something very personal. It’s her feelings so I don’t think I will judge if she’s right or not. One of the few things I don’t really like is her talking in details iabout PK. Even though I am never a fan of him, I feel talking about him is making Rachel looks petty and bitter. It’s like after all these years, he still live in her head rent free, and she can’t forget about him!

The other thing is her dig at another Peter. I think even though I LOL, it’s not really necessary. IMO.
About Vanessa, at least Rachel said they are good now, so I am ok with that.

The producers did do her dirty by casting racists and guys who don’t want to date black women, and I think Rachel has every right to be angry. IMO.

Now my personal wish is to see more full Asian contestants! Dr Joe!

I appreciate everyone's comments. It's very interesting to read different POV's.

Personally, I'm glad she explained exactly what went down with PK. At the time she was harassed endlessly for not choosing PK along with endless horrible SM comments some childish ones including the ones from PK himself. Even after media rounds, viewers hounded them with mean cruel comments because PK was not the F1. IMO he never intended to be the F1 especially in an interracial relationship, however he had a huge following and could do no wrong.

25 season's of TB and soon 18 season's of the ette, it's 2021 and they still haven't learned to accept people of all colour race religion sexual preference should be treated equally. jmo's.

IMO I hope she never shut's up.

@Terps4life I really appreciate you sharing your perspective. First, I am glad you feel comfortable on this forum as we are strangers and trust can be daunting. And that says a lot about the work that our admin, @GuardianAngel puts into moderating it. But without people like you calling out how you see it, the rest of us can't learn and grow.

The fans fell hard for Peter K., and there was just nothing Rachel could do about that. I don't support fans making mean comments on the social media accounts of celebrities, but sadly, that's everywhere.

Her ongoing saltiness towards Peter K. is just bizarre. To me it seems that she always resented that he didn't propose to her, even though in retrospect she had long since settled on Bryan. If you've made your choice, why the heck would you care about what your no. 2 does or doesn't do? It wasn't personal with Peter, he would have a difficult time committing to any woman.  

I do sympathize with her about the producers not casting more men who were potentially interested in dating a black woman. Having said that, it's a truism that in any given season, perhaps 4-5 cast members at best will be genuine prospects for the lead. Was it really any different for her season? Plus, if you want to look at a season where many of the cast members were genuinely not into the lead, you can look no further than Nick Viall. (I always felt that they did Nick dirty by not casting more specifically for him, because as much as I love Nick, he is an acquired taste.)

The headline of the article didn't bother me at all. Yes, the editor is going to choose something that will grab attention. Rachel still got to have her say.

@Amethyst it's not really bizarre when he contributed to that "angry Black woman" narrative, while pretending to be hurt. Rachel is not like the other ettes' she didn't just get hate, there was (and still is) racism thrown her way.

People (not you specifically) like to call her bitter & angry. Not only is she dealing with what's happening in America, but friends who can't show a hint of allyship, and a toxic fanbase to top all off.  People may not agree with her, but it's her truth and she did live it afterall. It's a privilege to not have to talk about it at all.

I like Rachel and thought the article was interesting as to her POV about the season. I get that she had a higher bar as the first WOC lead and agreed with her that they should have cast more selectively plus giving her a producer who was a POC would have made so much sense. I think most of us can agree that they've continued to make a lot of tone deaf decisions over the years. I don't always like her opinions or how she speaks about some people but it's her right to say what she thinks. Unfortunately for her, that opens up a lot of the criticism she gets.

I liked Peter that season (and Eric) and didn't care for Bryan, probably at least partly because of how he was portrayed. I'll probably never like how Rachel treated Peter at ATFR or comments after, including in this article, although he also said something to her that I didn't like. I thought there was a real dig in the article at people who liked him, lumping them with the ones who made hateful comments about her and Bryan. I get the impression that she's still not happy that she didn't feel her love story was shown (as others have said) although it's not the first time. Early on, it happened with Meredith & Ian.

I'll probably continue to be in the middle as far as Rachel's concerned.

@albean99 It is pretty standard for tptb to make F2 or F3 the fan favourite due to the editing. Even though I agree with most of the things she said in her article this is one of those that annoys me. Nobody gets everyone who is into them. They are lucky to have 4 or 5. If she has issues with the way her love story was portrayed she should talk to  Desiree! There is someone whose love story truly was hidden and yet I don't remember her ever complaining

Rachel Lindsay on Getting Death Threats Following Interview with Former Bachelor Host Chris Harrison https://t.co/AGOEcMbWFq

— People (@people) January 19, 2022

People are nuts.

I'm so glad she has Bryan to always support her and be there for her just like he promised on her season.