You don’t need The Bachelorette spoilers to tell you that Rachel Lindsay made history as the first African-American lead of the franchise.
Everyone across America seems to be loving her quick-wit and honest opinions, which first gained publicity on The Bachelor.
But making history is no easy task.
That’s true for Rachel and others, like Newsweek’s Janice Williams is feeling the ire of the internet after some controversial remarks.
She commented initially that the casting of Lindsay on the show was a milestone for African-American women and we do agree with that.
However, she subsequently argued that Rachel was in the small minority of women who date outside their race and the internet was not impressed.
(As for who will win The Bachelorette and whether that person is African-American, well, read the spoilers or stay tuned on that front.)
Williams then went on to cite data from a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center, stating that African-American women only date men of the same color.
The headline was controversial, to say the least.
“Unlike new ‘Bachelorette’ Rachel Lindsay, single black women rarely date outside their race,” it reads. It’s crazy how the article even got the green light in the first place.
We’re not quite sure if Newsweek was going the controversial route in order to garner some more clicks.
Over on social media, the site opted for the more sensational side of things.
“New ‘Bachelorette’ Rachel Lindsay is proving black women actually do like men outside their race.”
Like, what the hell?
One Twitter user was quick to point out that African-American women are less likely to receive responses when they attempt to contact potential matches.
“We are least likely to get responses/initial contacts yet most likely to respond,” wrote a Twitter user named TheBADCounselor.
Upon reading the full article, readers would have learned that the article was written by an African-American woman.
We’re struggling to decide whether the tweet was the result of some genius marketing, or if it was all coincidental.
With the backlash spilling in from all over Twitter, Newsweek decided to remove the story and the tweet.
“Newsweek has removed a story posted on May 23 about the Bachelorette. We apologize for any offense it caused,” the magazine wrote in a Wednesday tweet.
Williams, however, was not ready to accept the way she was treated by Twitter and opened up to Salon about it.
The Newsweek writer said:
“I feel like when it comes to these kinds of topics, of love between people of different races, people just automatically get defensive about it.”
What do you think about this? Was it genius marketing by Newsweek or should people have looked at the full article before making comment on it?
Hit the comments below!