The election of Barack Obama as the US's first black president was hailed as a historic milestone on a long and painful road to racial reconciliation after hundreds of years of slavery. But when will America get a black Bachelor?
The hit ABC television show – in which an eligible male chooses a mate from a bevy of buxom ladies – is now in its 14th season. For every one of those seasons, he has been white. This year is no exception. Jake Pavelka is a ruggedly handsome pilot from Texas. But a ground-breaking force for improving race relations? Not so much.
Of course, The Bachelor is only a reality TV show. But its lily-white pedigree is finally starting to raise eyebrows. "As I watch the remaining women vie for Jake's hand in marriage, I can't help but think: why are all these people white?" asked Newsweek writer Joshua Alston.
He is not alone. "I would have been surprised four years ago if you had told me that we would now have a black president, and still not have a black Bachelor," said Steve Estes, a history professor at Sonoma State University in California.
This discrepancy is probably the result of the long and painful history of interracial sex in America. Mixed marriages were illegal in many states until recently and in the Jim Crow South black men were often lynched if suspected of having sex with white women. Of course, that was then and this is now. But the social taboos surrounding sex are powerful, and recent weeks have not been good for sexual race relations. Lothario rocker John Meyer gave a bizarre interview in Playboy in which he confessed that he did not like having sex with black women, because his penis "is sort of like a white supremacist".
In the light of such attitudes, The Bachelor's adherence to all-white casting when it comes to its male leads is less of a problem. But a problem it is, especially when real Americans – as opposed to the ones who appear on reality TV shows – appear less concerned. Interracial relationships are on the rise in America and Meyer was quickly forced to apologise.
No wonder. It has been more than four decades since Captain Kirk kissed Lt Uhura on Star Trek, in what has been acclaimed as TV's first black-white smooch. A lot of people now think The Bachelor is further behind the times than its audience. "I think a black Bachelor would raise more eyebrows in the media than in everyday life," Estes said.