X Factor racism?

Talent shows on television.  Do they encourage racism?

Let’s look at the X Factor talent show, but we could equally be looking at any or all similar talent shows.  Now, the keyword here is ‘talent’.  The show is looking for somebody who displays the most ‘talent’.  In the case of the X Factor, this means the person who can sing the best.  Maybe not just sing, but present a consistent pleasing package of singing and stage presence – an entertainer.

The X Factor (the ‘live’ stage shows, not the pre-recorded initial auditions which are more designed to serve those who enjoy freak shows and outright cruelty) start off with 16 contestants and by eliminating the one with the least votes each week, tediously whittles this down to just one eventual winner 3 long months later.

The viewing public provide the votes. They vote for their favourite each week.  But what are they actually voting for?  Are they voting for the act showing the most consistency or vocal talent?  It seems not.  They are openly encouraged to ignore those qualities.

Less in recent series, but there was a time when back-stories on the X Factor show about certain artists – usually their mother had a wooden leg or their wife had been tragically eaten by bears, or they needed to become famous so the money they’d make would pay for a heart and lung transplant – were important.  Immediately this would give those who had the right type of back-story an advantage over those who didn’t.   Suddenly an act’s vocal talent was unimportant compared to how sad their life was.  They would get the sympathy vote.  Literally.

One of this year’s contestants comes from Liverpool.  The regional paper of course bigs her up and encourages locals to vote for her because she’s from Liverpool.  Posters in shops do the same.  Every week the X Factor judges make comments about the fact that she’s from Liverpool.  (They don’t really bang on about the areas that all the other contestants come from. Why?)

Again, can this be right?  Surely viewers of the show should be voting for the best singer.  Nope, people from Liverpool, it seems, will be voting for the act from Liverpool regardless of how much better other acts might be.

Voting for somebody for reasons other than their actual talent has got to be wrong, surely?  It’s a talent show!

Indeed, if people were encouraged to vote for acts because they are Black or they are White or they are Asian, we would soon see screams in the media and there would be questions in the House about racism.

But surely even encouraging people to vote for an act because of the geographical area he or she comes from is in itself exactly the same thing.  It is extremely discriminatory and it is deflecting from any concern about the contestant’s ability to sing.

It also continues to divide the country based not on ability or talent but on where a person comes from.

That’s got to be wrong.