5 Fun Facts About Lawyer/Texan/Beauty Rachel Lindsay, the First Black ‘Bachelorette’
Rachel Lindsay is gorgeous, accomplished and charming. And it so happens, she also happens to be black, and will be the first Bachelorette of color on the 13th season of the show. What took so damn long? (Incidentally, The Bachelor has had 21 seasons and has yet to have a black bachelor.)
ABC's obvious diversity issues aside, it's time for us Texans to celebrate one of our own with some fun facts about her.
- 1
She is one of the most accomplished contestants
Whereas most previous contestants have held such professions as "Makeup Artist" and "Bridal Stylist" (not knocking these professions at all, btw), Lindsay is an actual degreed and practiced civil litigation attorney.
Lindsay comes from an accomplished family as well. Her father, Sam Lindsay, is a Texas district judge who was appointed by Bill Clinton.
The only contestant that compares to Lindsay is Assistant District Attorney Andi Dorfman from Season 10.
- 2
Rachel is the only black contestant to make it to the Top 4
Lindsay has been the only black contestant on The Bachelor to have made it to the top four.
This again highlights what could be a diversity issue with ABC's casting/production/editing if you believe ABC controls the contestants' decisions. Certainly, women of color are seriously outnumbered by white women in the initial pool of contestants.
- 3
Even though Nick Viall didn't choose Rachel, he believes in her
From his Instagram page, accompanied by a sweet picture of the two together, Viall wrote:
- 4
Twitter went crazy
The reveal of Lindsay resulted in the trending hashtag #BlackBachelorette and a doubling of her Twitter following. Twitter told BBC Trending that the micro-blogging site "went wild hearing the news" when it was revealed on the Jimmy Kimmel show, and that within moments there were "more than 36,000 Twitter mentions of Rachel (@therachlindsay)".
- 5
Rachel isn't too concerned about the whole thing
In an interview with People magazine, Lindsay said: "I'm obviously nervous and excited to take on this opportunity but I don't feel added pressure being the first black Bachelorette, because to me I'm just a black woman trying to find love. Yes, I'm doing on this huge stage, but again my journey of love isn't any different just because my skin color is."