I hope you got the intent behind my post. I don’t think that there have been any blatant signs of racism on the show. If you read my post more carefully, you will see that I thought Elton John’s comments and the racial debates around Jennifer Hudson were unwarranted because of the strong presence of African-Americans in virtually every season of Idol.

I wrote the article in response to a comment I received in another post. I was surprised by the amount of results I got when I searched for “Idol” and “racism.” I only included the Asian topic because if we are going to always bring up racism, it is important to note that members of other groups have not necessarily done well on the show but there is little coverage of that. It is always about Black and White which annoys me.

My post was meant to elicit posts like yours to educate and provide different perspectives on it. However, I think that my point was that there is a need for diversity – it doesn’t inject racism to say so.

Besides, I think there are plenty of ethnic minorities who would disagree about us having to inject racism – it is present, everywhere. Just ask the African-Americans and Latinos who earn at least 8% less than Whites working the same types of jobs (check the census information on the government site). I’m sure they feel the injection of racism with every less dollar that they have.

All the same, your point is valid and this is a loaded topic. I certainly did not mean to give the impression that I thought racism was at fault for the lack of Asians, but since it’s a popular topic, I wanted to hear what others had to say. I agree with you – I don’t think Melinda is the greatest only because she has become too predictable. If I say that in some circles, they will attribute it to my being racist.

Oy vey!
Jeanne

Another Asian this year who was in the top 24 was AJ (Filipino also).

First, thank you for ending a disagreement about SE vs. South Asia for India. Half of the books and sites I consulted say SE Asia while others say South Asia. Do a Yahoo search, you’ll be just as confused.

After you said that there were “lots” of Asians in the finals, I reviewed the contestants from all of the seasons and I was hoping you could help me out because I still could not find lots. Jasmine Trias slipped my mind, mostly because she focused so much on being Hawaiian. Yes, I know Hawaii has the highest concentration of Asians, but they also have Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders and Native Americans. With the highest number of mixed race individuals, it can be truly hard to know someone’s background, but that you for pointing her out.

I’ve added some things to clarify my question and position. Thank you so much for posting a comment!

Jeanne

I also don’t think the judges are responsible. I was wondering more about the public at large and their voting preferences.

Jeanne