By: TheRagingCritic

Wednesday, April 30, 2003

(and no - I do not mean the title to be taken literally  - - - EEEEEW).

Hello everyone.  I have been bombarded with a zillion Instant Messages and voice mails regarding this Ruben crisis.  Many conspiracy theories have been tosses around, which I want to address, especially the racism claims.  This show is too fun to start all of the hate talk (the real hate talk that is).  I feel I want to state my position on this whole Ruben crisis.  Please bare with me.......

Ruben was in the bottom two because of one reason and one reason only - HIS FANS THINK HE HAS THIS IN THE BAG!  They are not out there power dialing because everyone - including our own judges and host, think that Ruben "already won this thing."

Clay has a rabid fan base and he has been the nerdy/queerish underdog ALL ALONG!  He entered this competition as the ONE with a lot to prove!  We do not have many of his type in the music industry.  The last one I can recall is Rick Astley and he sucked a big one!  Before him, it was Elvis Costello, once again DITTO!

There are many overweight black guys in the music business already:  Isaac Hayes, Lou Rawls, Barry White, Luther Vandross, a zillion motown guys, Ice Cube, Biggie Small (R.I.P.), numerous other rappers and R&B greats, etc. etc. etc.  So, as a fat black guy, Ruben is not necessarily an UNCOMMON "type" so to speak!

Kimberley Locke started out as the one nobody liked, including Simon.  For some reason, she was disliked, probably because she was not some glamour queen - which these days is almost a MUST for any young female vocalist to succeed.  Thank God she is winning people over (including myself) as I power dialed for two hours on her behalf.  Her fans have seen her in the bottom two/three umpteen times.  Obviously it has motivated her fan base to vote.

Josh is plain and simple getting a ton of votes thanks to Carmen's country-bumpkin ass getting boot scooted last week.  He is a particular genre that has a very broad fan base around the world.  You could stick a marginally talented country singer in this and all of the country fans are going to champion him/her on and power dial to prove their point that country music rules - and it is obviously happening because Josh IS a marginally talented country singer at best.

It is funny to watch the irrational comments coming from people's mouths.

"This show is rigged."

"The producers are racist."

"FOX did this for ratings."

"This happened because people hate fat people."

You know what folks?  All of this may be true, but I have listened to a ton of irate people, either through e-mails or on this message board. Keep in mind, that I was pretty irate myself last night.  Many people are complaining because Ruben was in the bottom two. 

The funny thing is when I ask these people who they voted for, I get a lot of "Kimberley" and "Clay" and "Josh" responses.  I thought that was funny.  Then I realized I could not be mad at America any longer for what happened last night because I DID NOY VOTE FOR RUBEN EITHER - I voted for Kim.

Even still, out of the many Ruben fans that said they voted for him, I got two main types of responses.  Many voted for him once or twice, but ALSO voted for Kim Locke or Josh (some even Trenyce) because they did not want one of the other contestants to beat out their second favorite (among those three I just mentioned).  But the most disheartening response from Ruben fans were - "I voted for him once."  When asked why they did not power dial, many thought they did not have to do so.

You ask any Kim Locke, Clay, or Josh fan who they voted for, and most of them will tell you they voted ONLY for their favorite singer and they voted for that person over and over and over again by power dialing for TWO SOLID HOURS (Just like I did for Kim).

So there you have it folks.  It does not take a conspirace theorist to figure out how the unthinkable almost became a reality.  Ruben is lucky he managed to get as many votes as he did to remain in this competition and not get booted off in a shocking manner (this is exactly how Tamyra got voted off last year by the way).  This will hopefully wake up Ruben's fans and they will make more than one call  - because FOLKS, he obviously has not won this thing yet - contrary to Simon and Randy's predictions.

One final thing - and hopefully this will wash the minds of those out there who claim racism is involved (I strive for racial harmony at all costs believe it or not) - look at things this way:

Out of 5 finalists, there are two African American finalists and one bi-racial finalist.  Statistically speaking, that is 50% of what we had left until last night.  African-American's make up roughly 11 percent of our population.  FOLKS - you do the math!  Ruben is probably at an advantage now that Trenyce is gone.  Demographically speaking, his odds increased quite a bit with an African American leaving the show last night (yes - it sucks - but then again MANY ARE NOT VOTING ON VOCAL ABILITY ANYWAY).  Ruben will likely pick of a big portion of Trenyce's voters, as will Kim Locke (just as Josh did with Carmen's fans).  So the good news is, that Ruben will likely not go next week - so relax.

So, what is the moral of this story, well I will tell you.......  Simon paraphrased my "HOW STUPID PEOPLE VOTE" article (which you can read on my web page) in 5 very small words - -"VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE ONLY."

......and if I can add one more bit of advice "POWER DIAL" for that one person!

TheRagingCritic has spoken!