Grant Ellis is not making a big deal about being only the second Black star of “The Bachelor.” His focus is on finding true love. “My experience has been great,” the former pro basketball player and current day trader said last week during a video call.
“It’s been a whirlwind — a lot of emotion, a lot of decision-making. But overall, it’s been great. I have no complaints.
” Though Ellis is focused on romance, the 29th season of the show, launching Monday, will be scrutinized as perhaps the most crucial test yet for the popular ABC franchise, which has continually been accused by critics and previous Black participants of racism and cultural insensitivity since its 2002 premiere. Despite pledges by executive producers to correct past wrongs, troubling misfires in the handling of race in recent seasons of “The Bachelor” and spinoff “The Bachelorette” have cast doubt over those promises to improve, placing added significance on Ellis’ turn in the spotlight. His quest for love as he dates 25 women competing to be his wife comes four years after the season starring Matt James, the first Black Bachelor, became the most disastrous for the franchise, tainted by an uproar after photographs surfaced of contestant Rachael Kirkconnell at an antebellum South-themed party.
Then-host Chris Harrison defended Kirkconnell in a combative interview with former “Bachelorette” star Rachel Lindsay on “Extra,” where she was a correspondent, which stoked the controv.
