It's a safe bet this wasn't the conversation producers of The Bachelor expected would cap Matt James' season when they named him as the unscripted dating show's first Black star.
But the tense, emotional exchange Monday night between James and former girlfriend Rachael Kirkconnell—where he revealed why he broke off their relationship after photos of her at an Antebellum South-themed party surfaced on social media—is the kind of conversation about race and white cluelessness that The Bachelor has been avoiding for far too long.
"Rachael might not understand what it means to be Black in America," James told host Emmanuel Acho during the show's After the Final Rose special Monday, dropping a line that felt like the understatement of the year.
Indeed, the show's refusal to appreciate what it means to be Black on The Bachelor is what made this moment.