Do 'American Idol' voters discriminate against minorities, gays?

The Grand Rapids Press ^ | Thursday April 23, 2009

[earlJam]

Do 'American Idol' voters discriminate against minorities, gays?

by Troy Reimink | The Grand Rapids Press

Thursday April 23, 2009, 11:36 AM

AP Photo Lil Rounds performs on "American Idol" on Tuesday night. She was voted off the competition Wednesday."American Idol" is many things. Off the top of my head, I can think of about two dozen adjectives, both positive and negative (well, mainly negative) to describe the program. Bigoted, though?

We run a live blog of each "American Idol" show and there was some interesting commentary last night upon the elimination of Lil Rounds (African-American) and Anoop Desai (Indian-American).

Mlive user getdownman posted this: "I can't shake the feeling that America is showing its 'True Colors' by voting off the most obvious minorities from the show when clearly from a talent contest, it did not add up. But to log onto the site it was even more of a confirmation that the next person on the chop block would be the one contestant that is the obvious next choice for removal. The gay guy. He's white and talented sure, but he's too gay so he's next whether he is or isn't more talented."

By "the gay guy," the reader is referring to Adam Lambert, who is heavily favored to become the next "Idol." But is talent enough? Does a performer also have to be totally WASP-y? And not gay?

[Carley]

Snoop is so arrogant, reminding me of O.

The red haired girl singer is too weird.

Lil didn’t connect with the viewers.

The Timberlake wannabe should go home next.

JMO

[I'm ALL Right!]

I knew the minute Lil and Anoop went home on the same night the "RACIST" crap was gonna start. It's a singing contest. The worst ones went home. I don't care if they're purple, they were the worst ones.

Interestingly, AI voters continue to vote for Adam - amazingly talented and gay as can be. He deserves to be there.

[Goldsborough]

Yes, after crowning a white woman first and tapping a talentless perm wearing metrosexual as runner-up, an obese black man first and a flaming gay second, a semi-literate black woman first and a forgettable white woman second, a white woman first and a talentless redneck man second, a lightly talented latter day Jim Nabors first and a forgettable brunette female second, a black woman first and a talentless beat box white guy second, a left handed white guy first, and likely yet another gay white guy second, the voters have suddenly become prejudiced?

Um, okay.

[Carley]

Rubin Studdard

Burrino

Bo Bice........all strange kind of dudes, imo.

[Lee'sGhost]

I believe Ruben was second year. The truly awesome Kellie Clarkson won the first year.

[T Minus Four]

Lambert has it in the bag, IMHO, gay or not, the kid can sing.

.I agree, but Chris Allen is my favorite!

[Big_Monkey]

"The example of Jennifer Hudson always get brought up, however, what about Chris Daughtry getting kicked off early and now is one of the top selling Idol Alum

Daughtry has sold a boat load more records than Hudson. Before her best actress Oscar, her musical career was kaput.

[Wyatt's Torch]

Ummmm....Adam Lambert is as gay as they come and will probably win this easily.

And easily the most talented of the bunch. It's not even close. BTW, Freddie Mercury was gay as hell but could sing like nobody's business.

[earlJam]

I think your are right.

Gay or not, the kid can sing and has a future as a performer.

But I also REALLY like that 17 year old girl (Alexis?). I think she can really kick it out.

Plus, I think she counts as a minority vote. She looks mixed race.

[InterceptPoint]

"Alex, I’ll take “MINORITY or GAY” PICKS for American IDOL for $1,000 ....."

And you would be making a very safe bet.

I would bet that 60% of the American Idol voters are gals and they will have a tendency to vote for the best looking guy even if he can only sing just good enough. In this case the gals favorite is Adam Lambert for sure. Add another 5% of the votes from the gays that will be 99.9% for Adam Lambert and he is as close to a sure thing as you can get. He will win easily. And actually he probably is the best performer in an otherwise incredibly weak group.

[Deb]

FOX has nothing to do with it. The show is run by Simon Cowell. The fact that he changed the rules this season to allow the panel to “save” someone (matching Cowell’s UK “Idol”) proves it’s not fixed.

[dawn53]

Actually Kelly Clarkson was first.

So the winners were:
Kelly Clarkson
Reuben Studdard
Fantasia
Carrie Underwood
Taylor Hicks
Jordan Sparks
David Cook

So three minorities out of 7 winner’s, almost 50 percent. Does Idol discriminate against blacks...NO.

[MrB]

Ever think you might know TOO MUCH about this show?
Is it worth the time?

[T Minus Four]

picking Danny will win, but I think he may be gay to [sic]

Danny's beloved wife died just a few months before the auditions for Idol.

[Deb]

You are correct. Sorry. I’d love to know where Jason Guarini is waiting tables.

[earlJam]

Ooops.

The one I like is the red hair dyed Allison.

[silverleaf]

ah, sure it was the gay-dar of the american voters that lost him the idol

sarc

[NormsRevenge]

I hate seeing race tossed about. They are all talented but somebody has to rise to the occasion and dazzle, if you will.

I’m sorry to see Lil gone, not that saving Matt had much to do with her getting voted off.

Anoop is gonna be big, hugh.. in India.. he has a set of jokers in each hand , we’ll see if he plays them right, :-)

Regardless, they will all have albums and such soon enough..;-)

—

We’re pulling for Gokey here. The other other white guy.:-}

[VeniVidiVici]

You knew some idiots were going to bring this up. The finalists were too “white”.

Of course they did bring it up and I’m sure it won’t matter how many minorities have made it before and won.

This is why there will always be “racism” in the U.S. Because somebody, somewhere will always claim it no matter what the circumstances.

[Deb]

Yep, I flipped years one and two in my brain...I blame Bill Clinton.