Trying to sue the Bachelor and the Bachelorette into diversity?

[bluestateguy]

I don't know about you, but this does not seem like a good strategy. They will have a hell of a hard time proving systematic discrimination, and even if they do it will take years and years (at which time the show may have run its course anyway).

If this is really important to them, a boycott would get action from ABC much faster than a lengthy lawsuit.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/21/the-bachelor-and-bachelorette-inside-the-racial-discrimination-lawsuit.html

The Bachelor’ and ‘The Bachelorette’: Inside the Racial Discrimination Lawsuit
May 21, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

Any TV viewer with eyes has noticed The Bachelor’s and The Bachelorette’s persistent whiteness. Can a class-action lawsuit force the shows to become diverse? Jennifer L. Pozner reports .

Skinny, weepy white women + horny, wealthy white men = love.

That calculus has governed casting on The Bachelor since its 2002 debut on ABC. Ten years, one spinoff (The Bachelorette), and 24 seasons later, every star of TV’s oldest reality romance franchise has been white. So were 22 of the 25 hopefuls on The Bachelorette’s Season 8 premiere last week. With that history, it came as no surprise that we heard almost no dialogue from the lone black contestant, Lerone, or that Southern blonde Emily Maynard sent him packing at the end of the episode. (On Twitter, one viewer suggested a #MenOfColorCountdown to see how long the Brazilian grain merchant and Colombian mushroom farmer will last.)

Now, a racial discrimination lawsuit aims to prove that this casting math isn’t only faulty—it’s illegal.

On April 18, two African-American men, Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson, filed a class-action suit alleging that ABC; the shows’ production companies, Warner Horizon, Next Entertainment, NZK Productions; and the shows’ creator, Mike Fleiss, “knowingly, intentionally, and as a matter of corporate policy refused to cast people of color in the role of The Bachelor and The Bachelorette.” The complaint charges that this “intentional scheme” of “deliberate exclusion … underscores the significant barriers that people of color continue to face in the media and the broader marketplace.”

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[JI7]

1. minorities should be happy not to be on here

and i say this as one of them.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

2. Well, maybe it will finally answer that great question

Is it racist if you decide not to date black people (or whites or hispanics or whomever).

[Confusious]

6. Are you being weightist if you don't date

Overweight people or Skinny people? Are you being lookist if you don't date people you don't find attractive?
Are you being classist if you don't date bums? It's ridiculous.

While most of this is, I think, humorous, there is a seriousness to it.

On, and I can't stand PC words, so I just filled in what I thought they might be.

[dkf]

3. This whole finding a mate on TV thing is creepy.

Do all those prospective dates really want to be with the star of the show or are they complete fakes? Worst idea ever.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

7. The only thing they are looking for is fame (n/m)

[dkf]

12. Yep. It turns my stomach.

[provis99]

4. so let's say these complainants get what they want,

and a black bachelorette is chosen....and she gets to choose between 20 white guys.

Would that make them happy?

[TheKentuckian]

5. I don't think they have made it as far as Italians, Greeks, and Jewish people so that dilemma is

probably still a down the pipe a bit so there will be time to work the details out.

[uponit7771]

13. Who's them? and no, it should set a standard that progressives should support

...these statistical "anomalies" are becoming overt

[LynneSin]

8. How many seasons and I think they've had exactly one couple that got married

and made their relationship last.

[HappyMe]

11. Yup. The firefighter & um...

can't remember her name. I think they have a couple of kids.

This whole concept is just plain weird to me.

[Ganja Ninja]

9. I agree.

Bad TV should be an equal opportunity employer.

[FrodosPet]

10. I always thought it was based on

How many times can you say "Amazing". So naturally, shallow people would have a big advantage there.

[4th law of robotics]

14. Entertainment can't select base on race?

Tyler Perry better watch out.