Hope you dont mind me adding another to the list -
Ramps - Winner

Has this made headlines in other papers, or is it only in NOTW?

Racial prejudice is a fact and I don't just mean white people being prejudiced against black people. My mixed race friend (Pakistani/White) faces FAR more prejudice in daily life from the Pakistani side of her family than from her white family. That's why she mixes more easily with the white population and most of her friends are white. She faces far less hassle. Sad but true.

But there really is no point in LOOKING for racial prejudice where there isn't any. People are voting for the best dancers/whose personalities they like/who they feel sorry for. Black and white just doesn't come into it.

I wonder if the poster who wrote about this subject this week on both this site and the BBC forum site was from the paperYou never know

Now I remeber why I never buy this rag of a paper

I'm not a poster on the BBC site, i've never even been on the BBC SCD forums, and no i'm not from the NOTW, i just happened to be browsing last night and it caught my eye.
Sheesh can't even start a conversation about something without being accused of something

I think the NOTW reporter probably got the idea from the idiot who started the Original thread!! (No, dancing_nurse, NOT you!)

More lazy journalism!!

JJ

There was another thread on this earlier in the week - can't remember who started it and now I can't find the original thread. It wasn't you though dancing nurse

That's ok then, i only brought it up cause i thought it was a bit pathetic on their part..no news so make some up type thing

Sorry you have mis-under stood me

Earlier on in the week a new thread was started about the subject of racism a thread was also started at the same time word for word on the bbc site.

I wonderered if that poster was from the paper not the started of this thread

Speaking as a White person, I don't think this is "overt" racism - it is simply White people showing a preference for other White performers on the show. The partiality of viewers to vote for Whites that are not as good as other Black colleagues is obvious, and not a little embarrassing for the BEEB.

No doubt, if this competition took place in a mainly Black country and there were a few White performers in the show, the Whites would get voted out "unfairly". I don't think there is much that can be done about this sort of thing.

Mark Ramprakash is mixed race, is he not, attractive and fairly light skinned. The same can be said for Alesha Dixon. White viewers were aware that she is half White. Colin Jackson was a far better dancer than the White bloke who eventually won. Spoony was also far too good a dancer to have gone when he did. Etc., etc., etc.....

I don't vote on this show - but would have supported Don and Cherie, because they are in a similar age group to myself. Cherie is a far better dancer than Don, but in turn, he is far better than many of the people still left on the show!

I wouldn't support really bad dancers, even if I liked them - that, to me, is pointless. The colour of their skin plays no part whatsoever, in any decision I might make.

The "acceptable face of Black" means that Alesha and Mark Ramprakash are lighter skinned and their features are more "Caucasian" than Don and Heather, for example, so Whites are more likely to warm to them. Viewers also saw Alesha's White mother and grandmother. This was a point of reference for them.

Colin was a better dancer than the man who eventually won. I didn't really see much of Denise and Jill, but there are those on here who did, and who think that Denise was the better dancer.

Lets just say that I knew that Don and Heather would grace the "dance-off" once or twice too often. I wasn't wrong, was I????

Yet people from the Indian sub continent are so liking light skin tones aren't they? The situation must be that your friend's non-Muslim White parent is the problem and over-rides the advantage of her much paler skin tone?

Had her non-Muslim parent been Black, that would have been even worse, would it not???

I don't think the colour of their skins had anything to do with the two in the dance off last week. Were that the case, Heather would again have been in the dance off and she wasn't, she improved greatly and so the public voted for her. She is actually very popular now.

I preferred Don and Lilia to a couple of others but recognised that he did not have a big fan base. Indeed, many were quite emotional when he was eliminated and wished they had picked up the 'phone, he grew on people but, alas, too late.

Honestly, the NoTW has to make something out of nothing. Ridiculous. We have had black winner and runners up in previous years. I had never thought of that before, but who seriously considered Alesha's race when voting last year? It certainly never crossed my mind and I am sure it didn't cross anyone else's.

I cannot imagine most people even thinking about the colour of anyone's skin in this programme. Personality and likeability often comes above dancing, except towards the end, and some people don't show much of that out of all races.

What a horrible article.

Why is this issue always brought up on programmes such as this , have heard it previously mentioned about the x factor. It is clear that different colours and races of people do get far on these programmes. The likeability factor as well as the talent affects peoples choices who they vote for. Gabby Logan is a prime example,white,great dancer but did not come across well as a person so was voted out early.:yawn:

Is that a reference to this week's spoiler?

bang on!!! couldn't agree more

That article was ridiculous- no way is there racist voting on Strictly, it's down to the person's dancing skill, their personality and whether they have a large fanbase or not. The article contradicted itself when it said that Alesha won and Colin Jackson came second- how does that mean there is racist voting on Strictly then??

Excellent posts. Completely agree with all your points. My friend who is Asian when she wanted to marry a black man, that was Possibly the worst news for her parents and they said if you are going to bring someone outside of our community. Why didn't you bring a white man.

I disagree wholeheartedly that racism has been trivialised by this discussion. It's very easy to pigeon-hole racism as referring to the BNP or violence against people of Afro-Carribean race and those from the Indian sub continent. The racism we should be addressing is much more insidious. It can reside quietly in people who are sure they are not racist in any possible way.

I consider myself very anti racism. It's shocking and no way to treat another human being. However I went to a seminar on Racism in the Workplace some time ago, and, like several other people there, came away feeling very chastened. My attitudes hadn't been quite as pure as I'd assumed they were.

So this is why I don't think that this is overt racism at work here. Not at all. But I do wonder if there's something inside us that we have to be wary of. Perhaps it doesn't matter in something as frivolous as a reality show but in life in general it does. What this discussion has done, I feel, is throw the possibility of this hidden racism into relief. Not a waste of time at all.

Race has not nothing to do with if you can dance or not......its the public doing the voting......Alesha was brilliant last year and won..

this sounds like Ground Hog day...........again

None of the Black or Asian fans I know felt last week's result was racist - but they will no doubt bear the brunt of resentment from nonsense articles such as these which are often the idea of some white do-gooder liberal.

A "do-gooder liberal" writing for the NOTW? How did they slip through the recruitment process?

I reckon Heather was in the dance off because she'd been given so little coverage in previous weeks that the British public didn't know who the hell she was.

Racism my ar*e. Alesha won it last year.

What this is and what I think Striclty has always been is people voting for their favourites , the person they recognise the most and like and in Aleshas case last year someone with that extra added sparkly personality.

In all honesty the reason I believe that Don and Heather were in the bottom two was because they are not on TV that much (not in the way the others are) , they are not instantly recognised by some of the younger viewers who make up a large number of the voters , and yes maybe John Seargant was worse but he is on TV regularly he has a following and there is something about him that his cheeky personlaity takes away from his lower standard dancing and draws you to him.

The Judges mark on quality from their professioinal point of view, the viewer votes for their favourite and thats all there is to it.

And lets remember you vote for who you want to stay not who you want to leave so a bit of a non starter for racists really.

This is not about racism and those that wish to make it so are cheapening real racism.

That is what bothers me the most about this. Those who choose to pursue stuff like this for sensationalist purposes are not doing the issue of real racism any favours at all.