Chris Harrison surprised everyone when he congratulated Jojo Fletcher as the newest star of ABC’s ‘The Bachelorette.’ The announcement comes only minutes after she endured gut-wrenching heartbreak on national television as “Bachelor” Ben Higgins chose Lauren B. instead of her.
Jojo is an interesting choice for the franchise, for sure. Since the show addressed its issue with diversity, this season, Caila Quinn appeared to be a more perfect candidate — being half-Filipino and all.
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Jojo received a ton of fan fare throughout the season. After-all, she is gorgeous, genuine and extremely open to the idea of love. Too bad ABC didn’t choose Caila, though. The two share those exact qualities.
The network could have really used the second place “Bachelor” contestant to bring in a new era of diversity for the franchise. Especially, considering that this year’s “Bachelor” presented some cringeworthy moments showing its only black contestant, Jubilee, being attacked constantly by her peers.
The two biracial beauties — Amber and Jami — opened up wounds at the “Women Tell All” special when they broadcast a rift they had with Jubilee. Stating that she was “the only full black woman” on the show was an accurate statement, but the delivery was incredibly distasteful considering the criticism Jubilee received simply for the color of her skin.
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In fact, it was something that Jubilee revealed she was very insecure about. It’s the argument that the long-running show actively tries to be color-blind but the end product results in a disservice to its contestants of color.
Perhaps there will be another hashtag to emerge from enraged Twitter users. #BachelorSoWhite doesn’t have as much of a ring to it, but the Internet has a couple of months before the series premiere to make up a better name.
