‘Bachelorette’: I Felt Like ‘Token Black Girl’ Growing Up In MN

WOODBURY, MN — “Bachelorette” star Michelle Young opened up on Tuesday’s episode about how she felt like a “token Black girl” during her childhood in the Twin Cities area.

Young, who graduated from Woodbury High School in 2011, recited a poem she wrote for a group date with the show’s contestants.

“You see, early on, society coined me as the token Black girl. I was their stamp on diversity, all thanks to my nappy curls,” she said. “As the token Black girl, I was still able to make friends. I was invited to all the big parties, as long as I followed all the basic white trends.”

“I was never the girl invited to cute dates at the apple orchard in the fall,” she continued. “I was the girl picked last for prom, but the first for basketball.”

Young said she promised herself that she would “help empower all hues of Black, white and brown” and be a “role model young brown girls see when looking around.”

Appreciating @michelleyoung’s realness always 👏 #TheBachelorette pic.twitter.com/roLZNK9DYi
— The Bachelorette (@BacheloretteABC) November 3, 2021

Young also spoke during Tuesday's episode about a time when a woman aimed a racial slur at her in a grocery store and how it changed her relationship with her boyfriend at the time.

Young said she was “visibly upset” when she got home from the grocery store, but her boyfriend’s response "was more of how I was giving the woman more power because I was upset about it and because I chose to be upset about it.”

“I had to justify my emotions, which I did at that time,” she said. “I justified, I tried to explain where I was coming from. And looking back on it, that was my sign. I shouldn't have ever had to justify my feelings.”

“The one feeling that you can't really explain to somebody who’s not a person of color is the first time that someone uses the N-word directed at you,” Young said.