Playing the race card?

[LeslieAGD]

Originally posted by Sistermadly
Besides, the only cards I can play are "UNO" cards.

I like UNO. Skipbo is fun too!

[AXO Alum]

Originally posted by enlightenment06
Now I'm now making any accusations as far as race goes, but it makes you wonder if Clay had won would Reuben be on the cover of Rolling Stone? Would he be getting as much press? Makes ya go "hmmm..."

AXO Alum is going to reply with her opinion, and will not be emotional and fired up over something that in the end does not matter a hill of beans to her life.....

I feel like (love those "feel" words) you are making an "accusation" (although using the term lightly) as to the involvement of race here (hence the usage of the subject line you created). We don't know what would happen "if" Clay had won because he didn't. I am a huge fan of Clay (he will be my husband after all ) but I do not perpetuate the "rumor" that he lost due to the show being rigged or the phone mix-up. I do, however, believe that the show allowed viewers to call an 800 number or text-message their vote AS OFTEN as they liked. Which meant one person coulda voted a thousand times. However, when it comes to SELLING albums, I don't know many people who would buy TWO of the exact same album for their own personal collection....much less more than two!

So for the sake of "accuracy" it is my opinion that record sales, and not number of votes, that determines NOT the winner (because the votes did that), but the actual POPULARITY of the person -- more sales = more poplularity (at least that's the way I see it).

I am not trying to offend anyone on here - I am being very careful to choose my words accordingly. I simply believe that Clay has a bigger fan-base than Ruben.

As to the motives of RS, I cannot comment as I do not remember the last time I even saw a copy of one, much less looked through it. I am just not that into music (which isn't to slight anyone who is into music) so I don't really look through music related magazines. I would like a copy, however, because I would like to be able to show pictures to people of my future husband !

Signed,
AXO Alum and the low-blood-pressure way of life....

[RedefinedDiva]

I have read on various occasions that a few have stated that they are "tired of race being an issue." Well, of course, race WILL always be an issue. The problem is that we keep denying it and supressing our thoughts. As it has been stated previously in other threads, some of us have to deal with race issues every single day of our lives. Therefore, we become hypersensitive to these matters. The problems arise when those that do not understand continuosly try to supress the issue instead of embracing it and looking at it from that perspective. Yet, I digress.

There has been a massive outcry of Clay being the "real" winner of AI. As it was stated previously, everyone had free will to vote as many times as they wished for either competitor. However, when the outcome was not favorable for the majority, something had to have been wrong. Why? Why couldn't Rueben be the winner, fair and square? What was the deal with the wrong # thing? Hey, nobody told those persons who dialed the wrong to do so.

I don't think that record sales has anything to do with Clay's "popularity." Reuben and Clay were both popular long before they had ever released records. I do, however, believe that, on some level, the race of the two finalists did play a part, as it usually does. Clay's appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone makes no difference to me because that is not a magazine that purchase. I don't even read it in the doctor's office. However, I would think that the WINNER would get props BEFORE the runner-up. That's just my view. Maybe it is a weight thing, as it can also be that more White Americans read the magazine. Who knows?

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by RedefinedDiva

There has been a massive outcry of Clay being the "real" winner of AI.

I just want to explain why this is, to anybody else who hasn't discussed this yet:

The Fox phone lines were only open for three hours, which Fox knew from experience wouldn't be nearly long enough to cover the massive amounts of calls coming in. Let's say (I'm totally making up this number up) each phone line was able to handle 10 million calls per hour. Let's say 11 million people per hour were calling for Clay and 20 million people per hour were calling for Ruben (or vice versa). Either way, each phone number will only be able to handle 10 million calls an hour, meaning each contestant will get almost identical numbers of votes. Also, it would be extremely easy for Fox to rig the contest by simply keeping "their" contestant's phone lines open a couple minutes longer, which isn't something that anybody else would notice. In fact, I believe that when the votes were finally counted, the difference in votes amount to one minute's worth of calls.

Obviously, since Fox knew this would happen (the phone lines were also flooded in the second-to-last round, too) but didn't increase the phone lines' capacity, you can reasonably assume that Fox was trying to engineer a very close vote tally (if not rig the contest altogether -- although there's no hard evidence that that was the case and probably never will be). I think this is the reason that too many people are claiming that Ruben isn't the "real" winner -- the voting system was too flawed to give an accurate reading as to who the public really preferred.

(I'm not trying to be dismissive of Ruben here; the only episode I watched of American Idol was the last and I liked Ruben and Clay equally. I'm just trying to point out why a lot of people have been claiming the vote wasn't necessarily accurate, whether or not they're right.)

[Sistermadly]

Originally posted by LeslieAGD
I like UNO. Skipbo is fun too!

Then this is for you:
http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/mait...oride=uno&r=01

</hijack>

[enlightenment06]

Hmm. Interesting stuff. Honestly I don't even watch American Idol like that. I didn't want to make any direct accusations because there is the possibility of being hypersensitive (but being a Black man in the United States will do that to you). However, I do think that these types of questions should be posed. Our country is literally built on a racial caste system which has only begun to unravel with the past forty or so years (see United States Constitution ). As RedifinedDiva said, we keep supressing and denying our thoughts which impedes our social progress as a nation. Thanks for the repsonses though, I definitely think it is something to think about.

[White_Chocolate]

Originally posted by sugar and spice
I was using that term facetiously. Honestly, the reason people CAN play cards (be it race, gender, weight, whatever) is because there's historically been an issue there.

I think it's been proven (or at least claimed that it's been proven by every magazine in existence) that fat people do not sell magazines.

You just added cool points. . .you used my favorite word. . .facetious.

Who cares about Rolling Stones? The magazine sucks. . .like People. They always put the same people on the cover(the year I had a subscription, Brittney Spears was on it 4 times, I cancelled it and sent the last cover back to them in shreds). Try reading Spin(my personal favorite) or Vibe.

Besides, Clay looks and probably has homosexual tendencies which is what they are trying to usher into the music industry. . .acceptance(hence, taTu). So, who cares? Let them buy every single magazine in the store. If it helps gay people get into the industry, then, here here!!

[LeslieAGD]

Originally posted by Sistermadly
Then this is for you:
http://www.zooscape.com/cgi-bin/mait...oride=uno&r=01

</hijack>

[librasoul22]

Since we are playing cards can we get some spades going on?

lol, j/k.

Honestly, I think the Clay cover had more to do with album sales. Clay's single sold more, and Rolling Stone probably took that to mean that Clay had more fans, thus more people would buy a Rolling Stone with Clay on the cover. I don't think race necessarily played a part.

[White_Chocolate]

Originally posted by librasoul22
Since we are playing cards can we get some spades going on?

lol, j/k.

Honestly, I think the Clay cover had more to do with album sales. Clay's single sold more, and Rolling Stone probably took that to mean that Clay had more fans, thus more people would buy a Rolling Stone with Clay on the cover. I don't think race necessarily played a part.

Exactly, it's called selling a person.

[Munchkin03]

Originally posted by White_Chocolate

Who cares about Rolling Stones? The magazine sucks. . .like People.

See, that's what I'm getting at...RS used to be a cutting-edge magazine, now it's just terrible--it started heading downhill around '98. It's become a lowbrow publication that many serious music fans (read: purists) won't even touch. Having the American Idol winner (or runner-up) just proves my point. Maybe Reuben (sp?) feels the same way I do and wouldn't be caught dead on the cover of such a rag.

[DeltAlum]

Come to think of it, I can't remember seeing too many black faces on the cover of Rolling Stone. But, I've never subscribed, so that may not be a fair comment.

In terms of the "contest," any debate on who is the real winner is kind of silly because people were allowed to vote as many times as they could get through.

What is definitive about that?

Kind of like what they used to say about the first Richard Daley administration in Chicago: "Vote early and often."

Maybe the next AI should be shot in Florida. They have a lot of practice at messing up vote counts.

[Bamboozled]

Why was Clay on the cover of RS and not Ruben? Why is Clay's single selling more than Ruben's? Why does it seem as though Clay won AI on not Ruben?

Because Ruben's PR team SUCKS!!!

Where is Ruben? Have you seen him? I haven't...... Now anybody who read my posts on the AI thread knows that I was a huge Ruben fan. When he won, I was ecstatic. But now that the dust has settled, I'm pretty disappointed in ol' Rube. This kid seems to have no drive and no determination to monopolize on his 15 minutes of fame. In interviews, I've heard people ask him what's next for him and he replys with, "I'm just blessed that God has let me make it this far." Ok, now I'm all for counting your blessings, but I also know that God helps those who help themselves. Having your inexperienced brother and various other family members as your manager/PR team/agent is not going to work in this business. If Ruben had the right people behind him, he'd have been on a lot of covers, and done promotional tours/publicity stunts by now. Hell, he hasn't even been on the cover of Ebony, Essence, Savoy, etc... Jet is his only claim to fame .

I am not in the music industry, but even I know that it's all about hustle. Nothing's going to fall in your lap. So, I think that Clay just has more hustle, a better team behind him and a desire to milk this thing for all he can. Ruben seems to just be happy with having the title "American Idol". So, to the victor goes the spoils......

I bet y'all thought I was going to say it was a matter of race, didn't you, LOL.......

[librasoul22]

Originally posted by DeltAlum
Maybe the next AI should be shot in Florida. They have a lot of practice at messing up vote counts.

Heeeeeyyy!

lol. j/k

[OUlioness01]

now i don't want to offend anyone here so i'm going to try and chose what i say very carefully. I really believe that for most people race is not an issue. notice i did not say all people. what i mean by that, is that although there is still and probably will be discrimination and racial tension for some time to come, most people in our society do not see a color, they see a person.

in regards to clay on rolling stone over ruben there could be many asnwers. maybe ruben was asked to be on RS and didn't want to. maybe he didn't have time, maybe his press agents or whatever just did not get on the ball in time. plus, clay does seem to be selling better than ruben, for whatever reason.

okay, that is all.