From featuring the first Black Bachelor to having a mental health consultant on set, this group of Bachelor superfans is helping to diversify the mega hit series.
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00:00The last season was full of drama, full of racism, if I'm honest.
00:13One of our asks was just for our next Bachelor to be a BIPOC lead, which it turned out to be.
00:21So it was our next Bachelorette, and so was our upcoming Bachelorette.
00:25So we've made some progress there.
00:30We really want this show to represent the world around us, and that's not what it's doing so far.
00:42I still fell in love with the show because I'm a romantic, I love love,
00:48and I loved the connections that they were making.
00:53Chloe, she just posted something really quick and was brainstorming and just wanted to say,
01:04what do you guys think we should do about diversity?
01:07A lot of us just jumped on the post and were like, hey, we'd love to brainstorm with you.
01:12And a week later, we had a full-fledged campaign surrounding
01:18so many people in Bachelor Nation and just built from the ground up.
01:26I believe 10 of us right now who actively work on the campaign every day, we're 100% a team.
01:38We really thought our goal was going to be 5,000 signs on our petition overall,
01:45and now we're almost at 200,000.
01:47Our petition is basically all of our asks and all of the areas we think that the Bachelor
01:55would get better in if they promoted us to the BIPOC.
02:00Yes, putting more BIPOC people on the season was an improvement,
02:05but we're not doing the things that would further make the show just amazing
02:12and make the show a better environment for BIPOC people who go on.
02:19Another one of our asks was for them to have a mental health consultant for BIPOC members
02:27during the show and after, because it's extremely hard to be on that show
02:33when you are a person of color that is not a person of color.
02:38So we asked them to do a mental health consultant for BIPOC members during the show and after.
02:47Our person of color, the amount of hate and disgusting messages they get constantly
02:54is ridiculous, and we feel like they should be able to have someone who's there to help them
03:01and there to see them through.
03:03We also are looking for a diversity consultant, someone who could look at the show
03:08while it's taping and be like, okay, that seems a little bit insensitive.
03:13Let's rewrite that.
03:17It was everywhere and every post was being shared.
03:27People were tagging ABC Executive.
03:31People were tagging ABC Bachelor producers.
03:34People were tagging Warner Brothers TV.
03:37People were tagging ABC.
03:39When it became that the big bachelor people like Rachel Lindsay, Mike Johnson,
03:45all of them were seeing it.
03:46They were saying, you're making a difference.
03:48Like things are happening.
03:50You don't realize, but a lot of things are happening behind the scenes.
03:54And I'm not sure who they were going to pick for the bachelor.
04:00I don't know if Matt wasn't their first choice.
04:05I don't know if he was their second choice.
04:07But the fact that they decided that, okay, this is not going to go over well
04:13if we don't pick a black bachelor.
04:16I think they really were seeing that we were not going to take anything less.
04:29I remember the day it happened very vividly.
04:33I woke up early and my phone was blowing up and they're like, Matt James is the bachelor.
04:40And we obviously had a ton of work on our end to do.
04:45But I remember crying.
04:47I cried because I was so moved that the work that we were doing was making such an impact
04:53and that people were actually hearing us and listening to us.
04:57And I was so emotional that day.
05:01Matt, do you feel any pressure being the first black man to be a bachelor at this point?
05:07I think it's an honor.
05:08I'm just going to lean into myself and how my mom raised me.
05:12And hopefully when people invite me into their homes on Monday night,
05:15they're going to see that I'm not much different from them.
05:17And they see that diverse love stories are beautiful.
05:24Our page is not only for diversity in the bachelor campaign.
05:28It's diversity in every other show, but also just diversity in the world, period.
05:36I'm protecting BIPOC members of the community.
05:40I'd love to see meaningful conversations.
05:44Personally, on my end, I feel like ABC is still playing it safe.
05:49It won't have a fully BIPOC couple on the show.
05:54And I would love to see that.
05:57Fully diverse, just a season full of love.
06:03That's what I'd want.