The Bachelor stumbled into its race controversy because the franchise has refused to face how deeply centered on white culture the whole enterprise truly is

NPR

Even after naming Matt James as the first Black Bachelor in 25 seasons, The Bachelor producers have "seemingly shown little regard for the extra pressure non-white people face in trying to compete on the program," says Eric Deggans. "Worst of all, the show seems to have no clue how deeply embedded racism is in the fabric of American life — and how dating, especially across racial lines, can bring out those issues in ways that are explosive and damaging if not handled well." Deggans adds: "Why doesn't the show do a better job of screening its white contestants' backgrounds? And why did it take so long for the show to name a Black man to star in The Bachelor in the first place? These are questions that are tough to answer for another reason; the show's producers don't talk openly about what they do or why they do it. James has perfected the show's style of speaking in vague platitudes. So it was tough to discern from his answers Monday exactly what happened between him and Kirkconnell when the pictures surfaced; they both implied that she didn't take the controversy seriously enough at first....That may also be part of the problem. Because The Bachelor is basically a princess fantasy — a soap opera featuring non-actors centered on a hunky guy choosing a romantic partner in the most idealized settings possible. But talking about and understanding how race works in America is the opposite of fantasy. It's a difficult, challenging process, which often requires facing uncomfortable truths. And James admitted in an interview on ABC's Good Morning America Tuesday that he didn't discuss race or the challenge of dating across racial lines with Kirkconnell before the controversy emerged. It's tough to know whether a franchise as manipulative and problematic as The Bachelor/Bachelorette can ever correct itself enough to consistently handle racial issues well."

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• The stark dichotomy between The Bachelor finale and After the Final Rose reinforced some of the franchise’s misguided priorities: "The show devoted its typical two-hour window to staging a finale that was only slightly different from a narrative the franchise has already aired dozens of times," says Rodger Sherman. "The big drama? Matt’s decision about whether to propose to Rachael. (He eventually decides against it.) We watched Matt wrestle with this for roughly 45 minutes, even though his choice would be rendered irrelevant by the events that took place after filming stopped. Meanwhile, the interviews between Matt, Rachael, and Emmanuel Acho—the interviewer who 'stepped in' for Chris Harrison after Harrison zealously defended Rachael’s racist pictures—were smooshed into an hour, forced to share time with an interview with runner-up Michelle and the announcement that Michelle and former contestant Katie would each be leads on the next seasons of The Bachelorette. Acho’s interviews with Matt and Rachael were the highlight of the season, and The Bachelor played them off as a postscript. Acho is significantly better than Chris Harrison at interviewing people. A former NFL player, Acho has achieved fame for his Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man YouTube series (he made sure to note that last night’s conversations were also “uncomfortable” upward of five times). Harrison’s downfall came when he tried to sweep this entire controversy under the rug; Acho was actually invested in asking questions about it, and sure enough, this resulted in answers Bachelor fans have wanted."
• After the Final Rose was 50% dead air, 40% Emmanuel Acho just saying the word “uncomfortable" and 10% Rachael and Matt dodging some incredibly benign questions about race: "Acho did absolutely nothing to improve upon the conversation between the former love birds and the rest of America as he simply sighed and stared at the two waiting for them to come to some sort of resolution," says Shannon Melero. "He also seemed to be toeing the party line and instead of having an honest conversation with Rachel and pushing her to answer one question, any question he towed the party line and essentially echoed a lot of what Chris Harrison had already said. This could have been by ABC’s design or it might have been Acho’s choice to use velvet kid gloves when talking to fully grown adults about race but either way, I found myself agreeing with the multitude of tweets wondering what the point was of removing Harrison from the final episode in the first place."
• In a lengthy Instagram post, Rachael Kirkconnell writes of Matt James: "While I never expected this outcome, I respect his decision completely"