Man, ABC put me and other Bachelor writers like myself in a hard spot when they revealed that Rachel Lindsay was the Bachelorette before she even got bounced off The Bachelor! Now, we have to watch her lose? I mean, come on! That was my view at first, anyway, but now, I’m using Rachel’s being named the Bachelorette as a lens to look at the rest of her season of The Bachelor through. If Rachel’s Bachelor hometown date is any indication, Rachel is going to take being the Bachelorette seriously, and her family isn’t going to let her suffer any fools.
Nick didn’t get to meet Rachel’s dad, federal judge Sam Lindsay, but he did meet her mother, siblings, and a cousin, and everyone who talked to him asked him the same question — have you ever dated a black woman before — because they recognize that interracial coupling is still taboo for some bigots, and it will always be a topic of discussion, whether outwardly or inwardly. Rachel and her family have never let the topic of race be pushed under the rug, and that’s something I think Rachel will bring to The Bachelorette. Dating someone of a different race doesn’t mean you need to claim to be colorblind — it just means you have to accept the person for who they are, even if they're different from you — and I think that’s going to be Rachel’s MO. Rachel’s family also asked Nick the hard questions about red flags, things he liked about her, and more, and I’m sure they’ll bring the same seriousness to The Bachelorette.
At the end of the day, Rachel is trying to find a husband. She has to ask the tough questions and feel the tough feelings, and clearly Rachel isn’t afraid of those things — so she'll be a perfect Bachelorette.
