Rachel Lindsay calls out The Bachelor franchise and host Chris Harrison: "I have truly had enough"

People

The former Bachelorette said she isn't buying Harrison's apology Wednesday for "wrongly speaking in a manner that perpetuates racism" after he defended Bachelor contestant Rachael Kirkconnell amid backlash over her past racist behavior in an interview Lindsay conducted for Extra. "I can't take it anymore," Lindsay said on her Higher Learning podcast with Van Lathan of her future with The Bachelor franchise. "I'm contractually bound in some ways, but when it's up, I am, too. I can't. I can't do it anymore." Lindsay said she's having "a really, really hard time" accepting Harrison's apology because the host seemed to have "no problems" when he initially backed Kirkconnell. "When I finished that interview with Chris Harrison, he had no problems with it," she said, according to People magazine. "He was fine. He texted me after. He appreciated the conversation. ... He was like, 'Yeah, I'll probably get a little flack,' but thought it was great that we could disagree but do it in a civil way. It wasn't until the backlash came the next day, it wasn't until people start talking, people start demanding and calling for different things, that he then apologized to me and then apologized publicly. I'm trying to reason — well, which one is it? Because to me, Tuesday was your truth and Wednesday is after the fact. Wednesday was a response to the backlash. During that whole conversation, he had the audacity to question me. During that conversation, he talked over me and at me. During that conversation, his privilege was on display. He never gave me room to talk, and he never gave me room to share my perspective. He wasn't trying to hear it, he was just trying to be heard. And I'm not saying that he can't be apologetic, I'm not saying that he can't learn and be better from it, like he said in his statement. But you'll have to give me some space, and you'll have to give me some compassion and some grace to take the time to really reason and accept that. Because that was a lot." Lindsay added that since Harrison is "the face of the franchise," his comments are indicative of larger issues within The Bachelor and The Bachelorette. "People go to him for his opinion on what's going on within the franchise, for production and what's happening with contestants," she said. "So if he's speaking out in an interview, in this way, to discuss things related to the Bachelor franchise, then what does that really say about the franchise? What does the franchise really represent and mean, if this is your face, this is your spokesperson, and this is what he really feels?" Lindsay acknowledged that The Bachelorette has been good for her career and that she continued to be involved because she wanted to pave the way for more diversity on the show. "It did stuff for me, and I'll never forget that," she continued. "But how much more do I want to be affiliated with this? How much more can I take of things like this? I said I was going to leave if they didn't have leads of color. Okay, they did that, and they made some other changes. They hired a diversity consultant. ... Did Chris Harrison not sit through that?"