...to be outraged that the two black contestants in Strictly Come Dancing...

[seeker]

...were bottom of the public vote, even though it was obvious to anyone with eyes in their head that they weren't the worst two dancers?

last week when Anastasia refused to dance she should be sent off. I was surprised by the result.

Andre It's not that black people don't excel, in Strictly or elsewhere, but they usually have to be exceptional whereas an 'okay' white person would get through.

And Alisha is half white. That's important. It makes her less 'other'. I would say not because she is half white per se but more because her physical features and cultural background that arise due to her being half white make her fit in more with the audience.

Simon from Blue was brilliant.

I always think a lot of viewers of SCD are people in their 70s like my Mum amongst others. She would have no idea who most of the slebs are. I am struggling this series too.

I quite agree Chaplin. And yes I do tend to agree that it's probably not a White vs Other thing but a very specific tendency not to vote for people who present as Black with a capital B. Almost all the people who you could point to as having possibly suffered from a general tendency to not vote for them present specifically as Black rather than mixed race. But that's really difficult to talk about because anybody who differentiates Alesha, Louis and Ramps from Ricky, Denise, Colin, Heather, Jamelia and Simon (and maybe Natalie) on the basis of ethnicity is automatically opening themselves up to a huge cry of "that's ridiculous, who's the racist now?!"

Bluebell, Anastacia didn't refuse to dance, the medics said she couldn't. There is no way the producers could have allowed her to dance even if she wanted to.

Week 1 - OUT - Melvin Odoom (BLACK)

He was the worst dancer.

Week 2 - OUT - Tameka Empson (BLACK)

She didn't have a good week and has a bit of a love it or hate it full on personality.

And FGS start a new thread rather than resurrecting one that is eight years old!

resurrected by a one time poster

I knew, obviously, that it was a zombie thread, but actually I thought it was interesting to use such an old thread to discuss the issue when it arises again because it gives context. Each individual example is very easy to explain - I knew that Tameka was in danger just from looking at that scoreboard - but it's only by looking at longer term patterns that you can see whether there's anything in it.

Quite Soup. I'm an avid Strictly watcher and I don't even think about the race/colour of the contestants. Melvin is someone I'd never heard of or seen before - if others haven't either then that will affect the votinf.

Neither couple should have been in the dance off this week. Of those two couples, Laura and Giovanni were better and the judges made the right decision imo.

Melvin was pretty rubbish, to be fair.

Ore is doing very well and it would be an enormous shock if he went out as there are many dancers who are a LOT worse. Also agree that Oti is doing very well which is great as she had a right duffer last year. Strictly on the whole is pretty diverse - many of the pro dancers are from outwith the UK (USA, Russia, South Africa, Italy, Slovenia, Australia) and not all of the contestants are British either. As someone else mentioned Simon from Blue got to the final a few years ago and when we saw him on the live tour he was voted as the winner by the crowd in Glasgow - where there are probably fewer Afro-Caribbean people by head of population than there are in other large UK cities.

It is racism. Not deliberate nasty racism obviously but a depressing reminder that lots of people in the UK don't relate well to urban black people like Tameka. She should not have been in the dance off.

Also agree that people who you are familiar with do better - I had no idea who Melvin was until they said he was a DJ on a radio station which I assume is London based. Never heard of Laura Whitmore either. Many more people know who Anastacia is, or Ed Balls, or the two Olympians.

Simon got to the final despite the voting public not because of them

• he was in the danceoff three times, sometimes from waaay up the leaderboard. Nice to know he did well on tour, because it must have been pretty dispiriting.

Zombies and voodoo - bit much for a Monday morning I feel!

Melvin was in the bottom two, because he was a poor dancer, not because he was black. Tameka wasn't saved, because the judges considered Laura did a better dance.

My favourite dances of the night , Ore and Dan, who has a black partner. I think they could both be in the final.

I honestly don't think people vote to keep the white Guy in and the Black Guy out, but vote for which dance/personality they like.

I just assumed Tameka didn't get the vote because of her annoying personality.

That's one weird bit of spam.

People aren't voting for Oti, they're voting for Danny and she just comes as part of the package.

I really don't understand people's obsession with the colour of other people's skin! I wouldn't notice if all the contestants were white / black etc it just doesn't matter!

I normally find that people who think like this are white and trying to prove how exceptionally non-racist they are. It's the reality to show version of saying "oh I have a black friend!"

Someone also commented that they would love to see a black professional on Strictly - why? people should be chosen for that role because of ability not to equal out the demographic!

Gosh, i vote for the dancers i like. It has never depended on their colour. Louis Smith is half Jamaican and he won the show in 2012.

GUYS check the date of the OP - and the scary spammer

Who cares when the thread was created FFS? It's still relevant because the same thing happened yesterday.

I don't think it is racism with Strictly, in that (mostly white) people won't vote for black people because they are black. It is more that the mostly white, female audience vote for those more like them and theirs.

And that's NOT racism?

Blimey - that's me told