God Bless the USA: Kristy Lee Cook, American Idol & The White Nation Fantasy

Tonight was the American Idol results show (moving from 10 to 9 contestants). The theme of the week was "a song from the year you were born."

All season I've noted the interesting demographic composition of the group. In the top 10 only 3 contestants, Brooke White, Kristy Lee Cook and David Cook, would be considered white Americans. They sing alongside Syesha Mercado, Chikeze, Ramiele, Jason Castro, and David Archuleta all of whom would not generally be classified as white and many of whom ( Chikeze, Ramiele and David) have immigrant parents. They are then joined by Aussie, Michael Johns and a woman from Ireland, Carly Smithson.

OK, here's the deal. This week Kristy Lee Cook, who has been in the bottom 2 contestants for the last several weeks, picked the song "God Bless the USA." In tonight's results show Chikeze, Jason Castro and Syesha Mercado appeared in the bottom 3. At least Syesha was a surprise since she really nailed her performance this week. Really, in my opinion, only Jason Castro turned in a weak enough performance to qualify for the bottom 3. The others should have been Ramiele and Carly.

I hypothesize that Kristy Lee Cook's song choice activated nationalistic sentiments and biases among some viewers. Nationalistic sentiments (I'm borrowing from Ghassan Hage here) hinge upon the spatial belonging of white folks and the exclusion or at least managed presence of non-whites. Whiteness is not an all or nothing proposition but instead is something one may have to a degree. The extent of one's whiteness may be determined by skin color, culture, accent, etc.

In determining their voting preferences this week callers were influenced by activated nationalistic biases and, therefore, were more likely to vote for those "white" contestants consistent with the bias. I suspect that Syesha suffered as a result of nationalistic bias because she appears African American, because her last name strikes folks as latino and because (and I really think this is the big one and the reason Ramiele and David A. were OK) her song choice, a Gladys Knight & the Pips tune, was not "white." Chikeze suffered in part because he performed a Luther Vandross song (same problem) and, in addition, spent much time in his pre-performance video clips talking about his Nigerian origins and the Nigerian music and family values that made him the person he is today. Jason Castro - already at risk due to his last name and dread locks sang part of his song, Sting's Fragile, in Spanish.

Disclaimer: I'm not about to offer a definition of "white" nor am I advocating "whiteness" on the part of the performers song choice. It is interesting to me, however, to think about how nationalism and race are tangled and how, ultimately, Ireland's Carly Smithson is safer from nationalistic bias than Floridian Syesha Mercado. A strategic contestant could really use song choice to increase their success not just by, as the judges say, connecting with the audience but instead by influencing the way the audience sees the other contestants.