To be honest when I first saw them in the bottom two I though Oh God this does look bad - obviously alot of other people felt the same. I don't vote by the way.

But Heather has not been the best dancer and Don certainly wasn't. I wish people would stop voting for Andrew Castle cos he's rubbish and so is Mark the swimmer but obviously they are popular. I'm sure Heather Small has fans from her music but it is a while since she was in the public eye and I bet alot of people don't know who Don is.

I only rememered last night he was in the coffee ads!

We all know this is a popularity contest not the best dancing - it has been every year - so I don't believe it is racist I just believe it's about popularity.

Mark has been in the public eye with the Olympics and Andrew Castle is in it every day.

This is the reason their fans vote - even though they are crap. Nobody can stop people voting that way. Heather and Don aren't that popular. Heather did improve a bit this week but I don't think she will get any better.

It's a shame because with her music and rhythm she should be really good but she just isn't.

Absolutely agree with nearly every single post on here. Cant believe how NOTW would stoop so low. You wouldnt see The Daily Telegraph printing stuff like that.
There have been a number of cases where a non - white person has won competitions like these -
Alesha Dixon (Won last year, and was even called back again to perform her new single and when she was singing you could see how happy the other pro dancers looked when they were dancing with her)
Mark Ramprakash (Won the year before)

And also lets not forget, slightly OT but bit on the same topic -
Leona Lewis (Won the x factor), and
Shilpa Shetty (who was in the middle of a racial argument finally went on to win big brother).

So, you cant just make up stuff saying SCD's (and other programme's for that matter) racist!!

I truly believe if Heather and Don were great dancers there would be no story here.

Mark won, Alesha won and they're not white but they were fantastic dancers.

It just looked bad because both black contestants were in the bottom two. But their dancing was not good.

Things will sort themselves out. John Sargeant won't last into the final, nor Heather, nor hopefully Andrew and Mark.

I didn't even notice it was two black contestants in the dance off until I saw this thread and I'm sure many others didn't either. Of course racism still exists but most people will vote for their faves/to save the underdog/based on the pro dancer they support.

It seems to me that it was just a slow news day.

But then why was it that when Brian Belo won Big Brother 8 last year, there were people still thought that he wasn't an exceptable face, despite having probably the darkest skin tone of any BB housemate? People put it down to the fact that he was an Essex boy, that he was thick and that he wore blue contacts, yet we still go on about how an acceptable face only requires having dark skin.

But this kind of evidence is always used to pick out racial, age or gender inequalities in reality tv/talent voting.

Like, whenever people say how the Big Brother vote or the X Factor vote is sexist, we always look at the first evictions or first eliminations to make the point. Why not in this case?

Sick to death of all this nonsense. If two blokes were in the bottom two would it be sexist?

Alesha Dixon won, Mark Ramprakash won, Colin Jackson came second...

What a total load of tosh. If people voted for them instead of beseiging the BBC with complaints they would still be in!

I was so mad when I read it this morning, what an absolute load of utter tosh.
There was Alesha, Mark and Colin who are the people that write these articles numbskulls

I am disgusted at the News of the World "story"

THEY are being racist by even thinking that skin colour is a reason to vote/not vote for someone! Survival on Strictly is all down to dance talent and media popularity, and that is all. Colour has absolutely nothing to do with it and both Heather and Don have experienced the show the same as all the rest with no differences. How these "journalists" minds think is criminal.

I expect next week there'll be a story on Strictly being Eastenderist! I mean, all the Eastenders actors were out the door pretty swiftly weren't they. Must be a really sinister reason they can make up to flog their tacky paper no doubt. They've been doing it years

Ruddy red tops Always starting a fire when there's no need and it's sickening they can run this kind of rubbish as "news" when it's just sensationalism. Nil points NOTW!!!!

Pathetic, and the majority of posts on here make me sigh with relief that people see through this transparent attempt to stir up tension where it doesn't exist. This is the sort of thing an actual racist would do. Racism is an evil and serious problem and this trivialises it. I think everyone should ignore it. Why does everything have to boil down to race. I am white and I am not going to pretend that there isn't racism in this country but the fact is I haven't warmed to Heather and Don because they seem quite reserved to me NO OTHER REASON.

Ah sorry! My bad Wasn't properly awake this morning so i apologise!

I so agree with this. I didn't even notice what colour they were - sounds like sour grapes to me

http://www.bnp.org.uk/2008/10/bbc-un...-come-dancing/




This is getting silly - from a forum thread to this!!

I can't see any racism involved in SCD.

Farmloon, what a thoughtful, honest, intelligent post. Thank you. I salute you. And I think you are a mensch.

Not the discussion....the snide insinuations, the cowardly vague accusations, the constant drip of diluting allegations with nothing concrete produced EVER to back them up.

You mention the BNP. This sort of thing is an open goal for them. Christmas come early.

Actually what we should be addressing is much more fundamental...the indoctrination of our children with the unquestioning acceptance of an out-of-date and disgraced classification system for human beings that has no scientific basis. It's a sinister social construct that should have been buried in the distant past.

I have to admit that I find it to quantify how much there is in this - people vote or don't for people for all kinds of reasons and in can be hard to say if it's because of prejudices or not. I never took to Jessie Wallace and I wonder if there wasn't some sort of snobbism there on my part. On the other hand the argument goes that those who triumph of aren't white do so in spite of racism or because as half-castes they're more palatable but surely if you are racist then it doesn't matter if someone is paler or only half non-white then you're still prejudiced against them for not being white.

I have to say I'm sure most of us as the good folks of Avenue Q sing a bit racist but I don't think it's a big vote influence with the public and if it was what can you as tv show realistically do against it - if you allowed people to vote for however they want they some will do so for extremely dodgy reasons - you can only really change attitudes by stealth in saving John Barnes in three dance-offs the judges could be argued to be making a positive statement in that regard.

Don and Heather were probably in the dance off because neither were a cute bloke in revealing mesh shirt, a host on a popular morning tv show (whose equally if not more dance challenged colleagues also outstayed any welcome their dancing alone would have earned them) whom possibly some ladies fancied or a cuddly old grandad figure with great chemistry with his partner (Don was witty too but in a much more understated way and not as high profile as John) also the ones right at the bottom often get the 'poor 'cikle so and so' vote for those who feel sorry for them after the nasty judges are mean to them.

I can't speak about the other shows because I didn't watch them but maybe the poor lady voted off or more accurately not voted back in (don't forget voting is not negative so it's often about who isn't wildly popular rather who is particularly disliked - there is a difference - often people who don't stand out either one or another lose out to marmite characters in a 'positive' vote) was a victim or another reason other than her colour - maybe someone felt sorrier for another contestant, thought the judges over-rated or didn't like her attitude or personality. I can understand why Spoony is calling 'foul' but I don't think he's right that it was his colour which meant he was robbed.

The point is that it doesn't just happen on Strictly Come Dancing - there are several other 'voting shows' where the colour of someone's skin appears to have influenced voting; to repeat again Alisha is mixed race and Mark Ramprakash played cricket for England - enough to win over some voters.

I believe racism is endemic in middle England and despite the protests of individuals who are keen to put forward their anti-racist credentials because they voted for Alisha, that cuts very little ice. Most people do not actively vote against a black contestant, they simply ignore them and that enables them to protest that they're not racist - not good enough. The News of the Screws has it near enough right for once imo.

John Barnes was good as well. I don't even think of "omg should I vote for the white dude or the black dude" I vote for who I think can dance, or rather, to keep John Sargent in!

What a load of crap, but then, what else can you expect from NOTW...

Thank you Crystal Tips. Thank you very much.


Endemoniada, I'm not sure what you mean by this exactly. Could you explain more fully please?

Der Chef fires a slug to the chest :sleep:

I think the NOTW has raised an "inconvenient truth: that alot of middle class female little Englanders would rather stick their head in the sand and pretend didnt exist

Ohh Yeah

So two black contestants cannot be in the bottom two without it being seen as racist and proving that middle England is racist ?

All I can say is what a pile of old tosh. And in case you hadn't noticed you cannot vote against someone in SCD you can only vote for someone.

The type of people who see this as racism are the type of people who create problems where none exist, did anyone complain that the first person out was white ? And tonights dance off was between two white males or should we see that as just a blip ?

Yes there are often people who are worse who get voted for, thats because they are better known faces and generally have a large following and has sweet sod all to do with the colour of their skin.

But that's an unfair comparison. You are comparing race with profession. As I've commented earlier in this thread, Alisha was in Mis-Teeq, an urban R&B group. Hardly ideal for "Middle England", now is it.

You appear to assume that black voters will only vote for black people...

Based on this assumption - white people would only vote for white people and mixed heritage will swing according to their favourite parent!

Given that black people make up less than 4% of the voting public we therefore don't have a hope in hell really....

well no redhead has every won strictly, no over 40 has every won strictly so the GBP are also ageist and anti-redheads - or maybe the people that are in the bottom two are usually the worse dancers

Well all the racists obviously voted for Heather yesterday!

That NoTW article was disgusting.
Yes there is racism in society and sometimes there is a type of hidden racism that no-one wants to acknowledge - but I cannot believe that applied to Don and Heather being in the dance off the previous week.