Are "American Idol" viewers racist?

My blog has been innundated with people who've come via searches such as "american idol conspiracy" and "american idol rigged." And as Prof. Althouse and Adam Bonin have debated, there is a question of whether the voting has an ugly racial component to it, with the three lowest vote getters being (in my opinion) the best singers, but also the three African-American women. To be fair, I've used the deliberately provocative term "racist," but even Adam, who advanced the racial component argument, didn't suggest that the viewers were racists.

I think Adam is right that the notion that Fantasia, Jennifer, and LaToya are all "divas" starts to inject some element of race into the perception of the contest.

However, in the end, I agree with Prof. Althouse that it really isn't race that's at issue: it's the voting system. Because viewers vote for who they want to keep, and they can vote as many times as they want, weaker singers like John S. can stick around for as long as he has enough fans who will obsessively redial to keep his phone lines jammed. After all, Fox can only have so many lines for the calls to roll over to; once all the lines for a contestant are plugged (for that moment), additional votes at the moment are wasted.

Thus, suppose that the line for John S. rolls over to 100 different lines. At 8:01 pm Central Time, the lines are open. John S. only has 200 fans in this time zone (plus Eastern, since the show is on at the same real time), but they will vote and vote and vote for 2 straight hours. Meanwhile, Jennifer has 10,000 fans in the time zone. The fact that Jennifer has 50 times more fans won't be reflected in the vote total, since John S. is already maxing out the number of votes that could be tallied.

But wait, it gets worse. Since we are voting for who want to keep, not who we want to boot, people who think that Jennifer, Fantasia, and LaToya are the three best are in a bit of a quandary. Who do you vote for? You could spend two hours splitting up your votes among all three, but that makes you less effective than the obsessive John-boy fan who spends two hours voting for him.

In short, the system is broken and needs to be fixed. If they are technogically unable to limit the voting to one per phone number, then the vote should be for who you want to see kicked off.

UPDATE (4/23): Prof. Althouse points out some drawbacks to voting for who to kick off:

But the show has a successful formula based on voting for who you like, not ganging up on someone to convey the message that you are against them. The spirit is positive. The voters who are happy with three contestants and dislike one should not be able to kick off the guy that is the only one some other people love. If three "divas" made a great show, why didn't more people watch the all-diva VH-1 contest a year ago? (And why don't more people buy the unbelievably great gospel recordings that already exist?) It's not an objective talent contest. People like the music they like (and much of it is by black artists). The producers want to keep everyone watching to the end, want the winner to sell records (not just be the least disliked, but to have rabid fans, as Clay does), and are not adverse to the drama produced by the constant risk that the "wrong" person will go. That's the successful formula. Don't change it. Just keep reminding people to vote--a lot--for the one they love most. That split vote effect works to keep at least one person of the type that a segment of the audience likes. That's how John Stevens survived after JPL was gone. And Nikki McKibben outlasted Tamyra Gray because people who loved Tamyra also loved Kelly Clarkson and people who liked "rockers" had only Nikki to vote for after Ryan Starr was gone. It's the nature of the game.

Comments

[Jason Steffens]

Good analysis. The voting system really does appear to be messed up. (Which makes Ryan Seacrest's preaching last night at the end of the show even more annoying.)

[Matt]

It's certainly technically possible to limit calls to a set number of votes for any one contestant per phone number--ABC did it with the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire phone game. My thought is that they don't want to do it, not because of the impact on results (I don't watch, but based on what I've read, watching Jennifer, Fantasia, and LaToya perform for the next few weeks would be more entertaining than watching John perform), but because if it were limited, there'd be a lot fewer votes, so Seacrest and the producers couldn't pimp "24 million votes!"

[THERESA MCGEE]

One way they could control this voting situation is by charging per vote that would eliminate all those redial votes

[ISALA]

THE SHOW IS AMERICAN IDOL COME ON THE ONLY ONES THAT WATCH THIS SHOW AND VOTE ARE THE MAJORITY AND THEY ARE WHITE AMERICA IS STILL VERY RACIST, LETS JUST FACE IT THAT ISSUE WILL NEVER BE SOLVED IN THIS TIME WE LIVE IN, ITS ALL A WASTE OF TIME ONLY 4 GIRLS CAN REALLY SING AND YES, I WILL SAY IT ALL THREE BLACK GIRLS AND THE HAWIAN GIRL THEY HAVE TALENT. BUT OF COURSE AMERICA DOESN'T

[Screams]

I think that American Idol goes beyond all duties to be racist. All 3 black singers are great. None of the white or other singers really sounded too good. They were alright - but, that's about it. I think the show 'pre-sets' the winners by making pre-determined choices as to who will even be on the show. And don't give me that bunk about the 'people vote'........who knows what goes on behind the shows closed doors? You?! I didn't think so. Anyway - welcome to the new America. The media sucks and it continues to suck every gullible individual into it.

[Isala sucks ass]

Piss off Isala, stop your damn whining. The people that watch are the ones that spend the money. If it was just a bunch of lousy blacks singing, then the ratings would be just like the UPN Monday night ratings, no one would watch, no advertisers would spend money on it, it wouldn't be on at all. Shut the fuck up, you whining racists fuck.

[redhen]

I applaud Elton John. If more white people would start taking a stand against racism things would change. but white Americans continue to say "its not racism".

Racism is the power to take a less qualified white person and say they have more talent than a more qualified black person, then vote for the white person to be the American Idol. Whites can do this because they represent 81% of the voters.

Institutionalized racism is a system created by whites to exclude blacks. It is a system where white people do not have do anything but be white to win. Can you say "white privilege"?

What we see happening on American Idol is a microcosm of what happens everyday in America;
a less qualified white person competing with a more talented, more qualified black person. The black person gets eliminated. When someone complains the whites say "its not racism".

This is also about gender. How many black females get lead roles on TV and the movies. Most of the time you see a white, latino or very light skinned black woman that can pass for white in these roles.

How about less qualified black that get jobs, or admitted to schools simply because they are black? How about the fact that the quality of job markets and diplomas are dragged down by the fact that unqualified blacks and latinos are given a leg up over the qualified competition. How about the fact that an eduacted minority is an aberation, not the norm that white america is hiding. How about the fact that not a single black who does get cast in roles varies from the steroetypes, and that blacks who go to the movies, or watch them on TV only want to see the gutter trash expoitive crap that hollywood puts out. Drag yourselves ouot of the muck, don't rely on stepping on white people to get ahead.

[Ernest]

Let's remember who are doing the majority of the hiring. White men who may decide to hire the so-called less qualified blacks only do it because they are forced to give oppportunity to those they typically would not. I mean minorities. After they've filled 99% of the jobs (and schools for that matter) with whites with no consideration of hiring anyone else, they then make the minorities compete for the last few positions. Undoubtedly during the hiring (or admittance)process of the first 85-99% there were plenty of more-than-qualified minority applicants, but affirmative action hadn't kicked in yet, since there were still some positions left. The hiring personnel could argue that "Don't worry, we are open to hiring minorities." When the last couple of job openings are left and they look at the lilly white work force or student body, they say "Wait a minute. If we don't hire some minorities, we might get in trouble."

At this point there are three schools of thought that the business owners can have.

1. If we have to hire a minority, let's get the best one we can find. (Which could have easily been found earlier when they were not in the Affirmative Action Zone.)
This is the preferred of the three.

2. If we have to hire a minority, let's get one who is substandard so we can say "I told you so"
This is the most common of the three.

3. If we have to hire a black and a woman, let's hire a black woman and kill 2 birds with one stone.
This can be coupled with either 1. or 2. but typically will go with 1. because a qualified black woman is not as threatening to a white man as a black man, because she has two strikes against her to overcome.

We're doing a great job at dragging ourselves out of the muck that you have worked and continue to work so hard at pushing us in.

[citizendude]

To the twits that constantly talk about us blacks pulling ourselves up and not relying on whites. Get a clue. I went to a prestigious university and I guess affirmative action had something to do with that (not that my 1260 SAT score meant much). When I failed a course did you think I got waived based on my color ? No !!! I had to repeat the course. Where was this holy grail of affirmative action when I needed it on several occassions. Of course little can be said about the white folks that partied all week and was still abled to pull off A's or get waived since "Dad" is a major contributor to the school. Fact is most of us blacks that "pull ourselves up" work twice as hard for less than half the rewards enjoyed by most whites (and that's if we're lucky). Want to end affirmative action ? Buck up and be fair for once in your bloody lives. And then feel free to spew that garbage about us folks needing handouts. And yes, that was some covert ops styled rigging on American Idol.