Rachel Lindsay has only ever tried to help usher the Bachelor Nation franchise through their obvious race-based issues and into a modern, accepting space, by offering her insights and experience as a Black woman who was once a lead on the show. Despite her efforts, the former lawyer has been consistently met with backlash, criticism and even death threats when she tries to make each issue a learning moment. In her new book, Miss Me With That: Hot Takes, Helpful Tidbits, and a Few Hard Truths, Rachel opens up about her attempt to help educate and support Hannah Brown after the DWTS winner said the N-word while singing the words to DaBaby‘s song “Rockstar on Instagram Live… and the fallout, aimed at Rachel, that followed.
“When Hannah came out with her book, I wondered if she would address it, and she did. But she didn’t talk about me being involved with her, which, that’s totally her right. It’s her book. But I thought it was interesting because I remember thinking, ‘I’m in the process of writing my book and I’m absolutely going to talk about it,'” Rachel explained on the HollywoodLife Podcast. “It’s not that it was about her using the word, because she and I are good. We’ve talked, she’s apologized, and in the way that she apologized to me, she really did take the time to understand. It wasn’t this insincere apology at all, it was really heartfelt. But the problem was how a sector of Bachelor Nation responded to that incident.”
After Hannah’s IG Live went viral, Rachel put out a video explaining why the use of the ‘N-word’ is hurtful, the history of the word itself and why it is so offensive. “The video wasn’t about Hannah. It was taking the incident and explaining, as a Black person — I can explain to you like no one else why this word hurts so much and why people are upset that she used the word. I took it as a time to educate, and what did I get in return? People condemning me,” Rachel recalled. “‘How could you do that? Where’s your grace? Where’s your understanding? Where’s your compassion?'”
The Texas native referred to a chapter in her new book called “A Nation Of Double Standards,” in which she addresses the part of Bachelor Nation that constantly fills her comments and DMs with negativity and hate. “They constantly preach grace and compassion and understanding to me, about other people and how I don’t have it. Yet, they can never find those things and apply them to me, ever,” Rachel explained. “I must have done something to make that person say what they did in an interview, I must have. I didn’t give that person enough time and understanding or realize if they’re a good-hearted person, they didn’t mean it. It’s always somehow my fault at the end of the day.”
As reporter for Extra and a podcast host alongside Van Lathan, Rachel decided to step away from Bachelor Nation once and for all, after giving her heart, patience and time to the franchise since her first appearance on the show in 2017. “This is me telling my story in one place, and I feel really good about it,” Rachel said of her new book and closing that chapter of her life. “I don’t think that I have to revisit it after this. They can buy my book.”