Last week on The Bachelorette, Thomas Nguyen went home.
When he first arrived on Jenn Tran’s season, we had high hopes for the Vietnamese-American retirement advisor from Georgia.
His first impression was that he was handsome and witty, and Jenn seemed to like them.
As the season began, she complained about the lack of Asian-American men in her cast, so we expected more from her connection with Thomas N.
That didn’t last long, though.
Thomas N quickly found himself at the center of the biggest drama. He couldn’t stop coming for Devin Strader and focused on his relationship with The Bachelorette lead.
So when Thomas didn’t receive a rose in Episode 5, it wasn’t a huge surprise.
Thomas Nguyen says he also faced racism from The Bachelorette viewers
After his Bachelorette exit, Thomas N shared a lengthy message for his fans on Instagram. In it, he thanked the network, casting, and even Bachelor Nation before addressing what he experienced while on the show.
“Over the last 5 weeks I’ve gotten racial slurs, go kill yourself, I hope you die and every other hateful message in between based off a character yall saw for 10 minutes about over 5 weeks,” Thomas wrote.
It turns out it wasn’t all hate, as Thomas N had his fans too. He continued, “I also got soooo much love and support from yall too and that means so much to me and my family that you can see through this.”
Bachelor Nation has a history of racism
The Bachelor franchise has frequently been called out for its lack of diversity, although recent years have seen casting become more diverse.
The Bachelor producers were confronted earlier this year by NPR critic Eric Deggans at the 2024 Winter TCA tour when he asked why The Bachelor shows struggled so much with diversity and racism.
The question seemed surprising to the production team and he was met with crickets.
But as they look to change the face of the franchise, some viewers have been pushing back, and the cast has certainly been feeling it.
During Joey Graziadei’s season of The Bachelor, Jesse Palmer addressed the racism experienced by minority cast members and called out viewers for continuing to be hateful to cast on social media.
Additionally, Rachel Nance spoke out about some of the hateful, racist messages she received when she was given a rose that put her in third place during that same season because some viewers felt that Maria Georgas should have received it instead.
The Bachelorette airs on Mondays at 8/7c on ABC.