Black love gets a boost on reality dating shows

Reality TV is starting to show the world what healthy Black love can look like.

Reality TV is starting to show the world what healthy Black love can look like.

The season finale of “The Bachelorette,” which aired last week on ABC, provided a happy ending for Charity Lawson and Dotun Olubeko. Despite a handful of Black women in the lead, it was the first time in 20 seasons in which a Black couple left the show headed for happily ever after. Season 18’s “Bachelorette,” Michelle Young, along with her pick, Nayte Olukoya — who are both half Black — announced their engagement during the season finale of the show before splitting months later in June 2022. Other Black contestants on these shows have dated and partnered with men of other races. 

But in an interview with People magazine, Olubeko said he wanted to “do our best to show what beautiful Black love can be like.” 

Charity Lawson and Dotun Olubeko.Christopher Willard / ABCReality dating shows have been a television mainstay for decades now, but the big ones, like the “Bachelor” franchise, tended to relegate contestants of color to the sidelines until somewhat recently. 

That’s been changing, though, and Black couples have started to win in the end; in addition to Lawson and Olubeko, the fourth season of the Netflix hit show, “Love Is Blind” saw Tiffany Pennywell and Brett Brown saying “I do” at the altar. This seemingly small shift of successful Black relationships on reality dating shows is debunking long-held stereotypes that are often played up on the genre about Black relationships and Black people as partners.