June 18 (UPI) -- Rachel Lindsay says she "hated the timing" of Matt James' casting as the first black Bachelor.
The 35-year-old television personality weighed in on James' casting during Wednesday's episode of Watch What Happens Live.
Lindsay is the first and only black woman to star in The Bachelorette. She said she's excited about James landing The Bachelor but wishes it hadn't followed George Floyd's death.
"I'm excited that there's a black Bachelor ... but I hated the timing of it, because it does seem like a reaction to what is happening in our country," Lindsay said.
Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died May 25 in Minneapolis, while being restrained by a police officer who knelt on his neck.
"Did a man have to die in such a public way on a national stage for you to say now is the time for us to have a black Bachelor? That's what I hate. It's taking away from this moment," Lindsay said.
Lindsay has been critical of the Bachelor franchise's largely white cast and said this month that she will no longer associate with the franchise if it doesn't take steps to diversify.
"What I wanted was some acknowledgment and some recognition that they've been wrong and part of the problem, and that they're going to vow to take the necessary changes to bring diversity internally and to more contestants of color on the show," she said on WWHL.
Lindsay, who starred in The Bachelorette Season 13, said there was a racist contestant in her season. She said she's fighting for producers to do a better job of vetting contestants.
"You need a person of color in the decision room making decisions so that doesn't happen to them," Lindsay said.
James was announced as the next Bachelor this month.
