Is American Idol “Racist”? A Look at the Evidence by David Bloomberg -- 04/30/2004 Ever since Jennifer was voted out, charges of racism about American Idol have simmered. Even Elton John got into the act, charging straight-out that the vote was racist. But is there evidence to support this claim? Or does all the evidence actually point in the opposite direction? I must admit, I was not planning to address this topic. I thought it was so far-out, so absolutely nuts, that there was no reason I’d have to even talk about it. However, when Elton John recently came out and claimed that the voting on American Idol last week was racist, it opened up the floodgates. Almost every media interview I’ve done has asked about it, and people are e-mailing to inquire as to what I think. So I guess it’s time. To answer the question posed by the title of this article: No. However, you probably want a little bit more than that. First, let me start off by saying that I will promise not to sing pop tunes if Elton John promises to stop trying to analyze American Idol. He doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about and just needs to shut up. How can I say that? Well, let’s look at the evidence. He and others have claimed that American Idol is racist because Fantasia, LaToya, and Jennifer were in the Bottom 3 after Barry Manilow week, and Jennifer was voted out. That is pretty much the extent of the evidence they have – the voting must have been racist because three good African-American singers were in the Bottom 3 and one was sent home. I’ve tried to gather more evidence than this, for certainly there must be some, right? When people have e-mailed me to say that the voting was obviously racist, I have replied to a few of them and asked for the evidence. The conversation usually went like this: Correspondent: The voting was racist! Me: Do you have any evidence to back up that claim? Correspondent: Are you saying that John Stevens is a better singer than Jennifer, LaToya, and Fantasia?!?!?! Me: No, I never said any such thing. I asked you if you had evidence for your claim. Correspondent: [Dead silence.] It seems that those who have been making the claim – at least the ones I’ve been talking to – have no real evidence to back it up. However, there is some pretty good evidence to indicate that the vote was not based on race. Jennifer was the sixth person voted out. However, she was the first African-American voted out, out of four in the final round. Did the American voting public suddenly just turn racist after five weeks of not being racist? For that matter, in case anybody has forgotten, the winner of American Idol 2 was Ruben Studdard, an African-American. Coming in third was Kimberley Locke, an African-American. I guess the viewers and voters weren’t racist last year, either. And with the departure of John Stevens this week, apparently America suddenly became non-racist again. I could go on, but hopefully the point has been made. The fact of the matter is that everybody in the finals has now appeared in the Bottom 3 at least once. Should Fantasia, LaToya, and Jennifer have been in the Bottom 3 after Barry Manilow week? Not a chance – at least, not if the voting was based solely on talent. But it’s not. Voting is based on a lot of things, such as popularity. We also have the issue that I’ve mentioned before – that certain singers will split the votes. The “three divas” have somewhat similar styles – though each of course has her own unique aspects. So they had a tendency to split the vote. This allowed those voting specifically for one person to push that person through more easily. Allow me to explain myself a little bit more on this issue. If there were a “group” version of Idol, and two of the groups involved were Rush and Pink Floyd, I would probably vote for Rush, but maybe my friend Bruce would vote for Pink Floyd. Meanwhile, a bunch of teenagers would be voting solidly for NSync, the only boy band in the competition. I would expect NSync to progress because Bruce and I split our votes. But then when Rush was voted out, I would switch to voting for Pink Floyd, and maybe now we’d have enough votes to get rid of the boy band. Similarly, those who were voting for Jennifer likely moved on to voting for Fantasia or LaToya (though I’ve heard reports that some were voting for George because he and Jennifer were good friends). This helps to explain why John lost. I would like to address one issue: There are racists out there. There is no doubt of that. They have even e-mailed us here at Foxes On Idol. I’m not sure what they expect to gain from it, but they do. Unfortunately, this is a type of person who exists in our society, and we should all do whatever we can to put an end to it. However, this group is not in control of American Idol votes, and they are certainly not representative of most people who vote for contestants on the show. And frankly, it doesn’t help anything when people go around screaming “racism!” when there is no evidence of it (are you reading this, Elton John?). It will become a situation like the boy who cried wolf. When real situations of racism occur, people will be sick of hearing it and may ignore the real situation because of the cries of wolf previously. Racism exists and must be addressed. But there is no evidence at all to indicate that it played any significant role in the voting results, and there is plenty of evidence against that claim. Now let’s move on, ignore Elton John, and get back to some singing and voting. David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com. posted by Yee 10:36 PM . . .
