The Bachelor/Bachelorette franchise has a less-than-favorable record when it comes to diversity. The dating franchise had been on the air for 15 years before it cast its first Black lead — Rachel Lindsay on Season 13 of The Bachelorette — and to this day, the flagship series has featured only one Black Bachelor in Matt James. For that reason, Charity Lawson understood what it meant to accept the role as the lead of The Bachelorette Season 20, and as her journey to find love kicked off this week, she spoke about the role race played in her season and how she advocated for herself.
Charity Lawson was introduced to Bachelor Nation fans on Zach Shallcross’ season of The Bachelor, getting eliminated after Hometown Dates, and fans were excited to see that she’d get the chance to lead her own season. Lawson told Insider that as a Black woman, there were specific things she had to request, including a hairstylist "who can treat African-American hair," as well as "makeup artists, all those things that we're just not really always aware of that are needed differently when it comes to women of color." She continued:
