American Idol producers have been sued by nine black former contestants for alleged racism.
\nThe nine singers from various different seasons have joined together to sue the Fox competition for allegedly forcing them out of the show, reports TMZ.<\/p>\n
The ex-contestants claim that they were axed as part of a racist plot to boost ratings for the network.
\nA letter has been submitted to the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by New York attorney James H Freeman, stating that he wants permission to sue Idol and Fox on behalf of his nine clients.<\/p>\n
The acts in question are: Corey Clark (Season 2), Jaered Andrews (Season 2), Donnie Williams (Season 3), Terrell Brittenum (Season 5), Derrell Brittenum (Season 5), Thomas Daniels (Season 6), Akron Watson (Season 6), Ju\u2019Not Joyner (Season 8) and Chris Golightly (Season 9). <\/p>\n
Freeman claims that he conducted an investigation into the show after Jermaine Jones was booted off last year in relation to outstanding warrants for his arrest.<\/p>\n
He says that he discovered producers had only publicly disqualified nine people from the program, and they were all black.<\/p>\n
The letter states that Freeman believes the Idol \u201cscheme\u201d starts at a background stage of the show, when producers are said to ask contestants: \u201cHave you ever been arrested?\u201d<\/p>\n
He claims that the question is a violation of California employment law, and because the contestants are technically applying for \u201cemployment\u201d with Idol, the show was not allowed to ask about their arrest history.<\/p>\n
Freeman adds that the question coupled with arrest records acquired by private investigators were used to humiliate the black Idol contestants on national TV, and to create \u201cdestructive stereotypes\u201d about black people. <\/p>\n
He also states that the show made his clients seem to be \u201cviolent criminals, liars and sexual deviants\u201d, adding that the show \u201cnever once publicly disqualified a white or non-black American Idol contestant in the history of the 11-season production\u201d.<\/p>\n
Freeman also alleges that none of the nine contestants were ever convicted of their crimes for which they were charged at the time.<\/p>\n
He writes: \u201cYet their personal and professional lives remain permanently and severely impaired by [the show\u2019s] continuing violations of our nation\u2019s laws.\u201d <\/p>\n
American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe said that he was \u201cshocked\u201d by the \u201cridiculous\u201d allegations.
\nHe said: \u201cWe treat everybody the same… no matter the race, religion or sex.
\n\u201cI think we\u2019ve always had a fantastic share of talent from contestants both black and white… I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen racism at the show.\u201d<\/p>\n
American Idol returned for its 12th season on Fox last week, with a returning judging panel consisting of Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban and Randy Jackson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
American Idol producers have been sued by nine black former contestants for alleged racism. The nine singers from various different seasons have joined together to sue the Fox competition for allegedly forcing them out of the show, reports TMZ. The ex-contestants claim that they were axed as part of a racist plot to boost ratings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[688],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infotainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16471\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}