Remember several seasons ago when Fantasia, LaToya London, and Jennifer Hudson were in the bottom three in the American Idol voting? That was the fateful night that dreamgirl Ms. Hudson didn't get enough votes to stay on the show.
There was a huge outcry of racism. Elton John even managed to sober up and make headlines by declaring that the American public was racist and this was an obvious example.
Last night, there were three black girls and three white boys. The white boys were the bottom three and two white boys went home. Where are the cries of racism? Is it only racism when blacks don't make the cut?
Well, I don't think there was racism then and I don't think there was any last night. No one can predict how the votes will fall on any given night and it is a crap shoot in many ways. Undoubtedly there is racism in American, but not on American Idol.
I point this out because every cry of racism, when there isn't any, only diminishes the voices when it is authentic. Like rape. For every false accusation, each real victim's voice becomes that much more muted. It is Little Boy Cried Wolf, only we're playing with real people and real lives.
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Thursday, May 03, 2007
Racism On American Idol? No.
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5 comments:
Very good points. As we know now there are many factors that can affect the AI voting. When the three Divas of JHud's year were in the bottom three people probably didnt call in to vote because they figured they were safe.
That said, there is one white boy I'm really going to miss--Chirs Richardson! *sigh*
I don't have a clue about American Idol, but I concur with your points. On the other hand, I not so sure that you can exclude racism completely from the show, if you say there were 70 million votes. It's constantly present.
Katrin--
As they sing in the Broadway show Avenue Q, "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist". I think that is true. I also think that 70 million votes is such a huge number that any racism is nullified. And my point is that it can't be race related when 3 black girls are in the bottom, and not race related when they are in the top.
Race is an interesting thing here in the U.S. While we are debating whether we are ready for the first black President (Barack Obama), we worship our black entertainers and athletes.
It's a volatile subject, and we have a ways to go, but I know things are light years better just in the time I've grown up!
I think the whole show is a farce. The fact that one year the Black girls go and the next year the White boys go to balance things out shows that it is the producers who are deciding what happens and the voters are just making money for the phone companies. Ed
I don't watch Idol, so can't comment on the specifics of that show ... but I think there's a valid reason when the question of racism is raised when three black women are in the bottom three, and not so much when two white guys face exclusion.
A lot of white people would love to believe that racism works both ways, but I just don't believe that to be the case. Overwhelmingly, racism is a system that benefits white people at the expense of everyone else. There are many wonderful examples of this in Peggy McIntosh's seminal article, "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." To suggest that white people are equally victimized by racism is just not true -- anymore than an argument that straight people are equal victims of homophobia.
Google "white privilege, knapsack" if you want to read the article -- it's worth a look.
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