Idol Headlines for 9/27/12 – The Evening Edition

By On 09/27/2012 · 64 Comments · In American Idol, Headlines

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Mohegan Sun in Connecticut tweets, “Tonight! @CaseyJames from @AmericanIdol plays in the #WolfDen. The free show starts at 8pm”

The X Factor USA tweets, “Word on the street is @britneyspears @SimonCowell @LA_Reid & @ddlovato are making an appearance in the UK soon ;) #OnTV”

Colton Dixon tweets, “Writing another tune with @regisfunk and nick of kutless today. #sick”

Phillip Phillips tweets, “Working hard in the studio. Cant wait to play in DC tomorrow!”

Jessica in talks for solo concert? – MANILA, Philippines — “American Idol” runner-up and “proud Filipina” Jessica Sanchez is reportedly in negotiations to stage her first solo concert in the Philippines next year. Following her recent concert with fellow “Idol” finalists in Manila, the 17-year-old singer is in talks for a possible solo gig in the Philippines as early as February next year, the Philippine Daily Inquirer has reported. – Read more at ABS-CBNNews

Jessica: No culture shock – When Jessica Sanchez was presented as Bench endorser last Tuesday, the unmitigated Philippine media was cut short when they started asking “forbidden” questions such as those about her parents (according to reports, her biological father and mother are pure Filipino and her adoptive father is Mexican-American) and the issue against her raised by a certain Courtney Blooding (said to be Charice’s manager).
“I was born in America,” Jessica told Funfare in a one-on-one the other day before she was introduced in a presscon as the newest Jollibee endorser (after Sarah Geronimo who people said is her lookalike), “but I consider myself a Filipino” — through and through, that is, even if she doesn’t speak Filipino. – Read more at Philstar

SYTYCD Winner Chehon Wespi-Tschopp on Tough Judging and the Meaning of ‘The Suitcase’ – Chehon Wespi-Tschopp was well aware that most of his ballet-world contemporaries would think him crazy for abandoning a lead role in the touring production of Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away for a chance to audition for So You Think You Can Dance, but he saw it a different way. “I’m the type of person who never wants to become complacent. Whatever I do, I always want to keep pushing myself and keep growing,” says the the Swiss-raised 23-year-old. “Sometimes you have to take a small step backwards before you can really grow.” – Read more at TV Line

What’s Driving Ryan Seacrest – This past week, Ryan Seacrest launched the 2012 Ford Fusion in the center of Times Square in New York City. So I asked the American Idol host about his mettle behind the pedal. Q: What kind of driver were you when you first learned how to drive? Ryan Seacrest: I was actually not a bad driver. My father used to take me to a parking lot about 10 minutes from where i grew up and we would learn how to go forward, go backward and learn how to parallel park. So by the time I could really drive, I wasn’t so bad. Just a few minor fender benders. Nothing major, thank God. – Read more at Huffington Post

 
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  • ri2

    Casey is back there again tonight for a MADD benefit.  You have no idea how badly I want to return for MORE!!

  • fuzzywuzzy

    “I didn’t know that bigotry and prejudice are okay just as long as the majority support it.”

    Excuse me? Where did I imply that bigotry and prejudice are “OK”? What I am arguing is that the internment of the Japanese-Americans is a consequence of an entire nation of people supporting the actions that were based on racism, because it’s part of the human condition that bigotry and racism exists at some level in most people, otherwise that historical event would never have been allowed to happen. If that were not the reality, then the internment would never have happened.

    “The internment of Americans of Japanese descent is seen by most
    Americans as one of the worst things that has happened in the country’s
    history, and while that doesn’t mean that something like it won’t happen
    again, the way to keep it from happening is not to pander to bigots by
    infringing on the rights of others.”

    You are not understanding my point. It’s not pandering to bigots to claim that when one has been born and lived in a country their entire lives, that one is a citizen of that country first, no matter to what degree that person honors their ethnic heritage.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/6G57FUYKQLV7F4FC3EGS3HA3FA Cherry

    So “Jessica is in talks for a solo concert” in Manila? Awesome! I’d say “strike while the iron is hot”!

  • fuzzywuzzy

    ” Even if it were morally defensible to demand that people tailor every
    reference to their respective ethnic heritages in a way that soothes the
    feelings of fellow nationals who are bigots (which it isn’t), the idea
    that it would be practical because internment might once again be
    national policy seems implausible.”

    I think that you are misunderstanding my point. I am not in favor of people tailoring their reference to themselves with a particular ethnic heritage at all. I think that if one is born in the U.S., that person is, very simply, American. Period. I can understand being proud of one’s ethnic heritage and feeling a kinship with various aspects of the culture of the country of one’s ethnic heritage, but one is still American.

    Of course, as any ethnic group increases its percentage of the
    population, then they no longer fit the profile of those who would have
    their rights taken away. Only those in a small enough minority would be
    vulnerable to that kind of treatment, and those who were subjected to
    such treatment during WWII couldn’t believe that it was happening. I can understand why they were incredulous.

    I hope that you are right, but I’m still skeptical. I would like to think that what happened during WWII won’t happen again, but I have doubts.

  • elliegrll

    People will always see those who don’t look or sound like them as different, no matter what the people call themselves.  It’s just like jumping to the conclusion that someone who calls themselves African American or Asian American doesn’t see themselves as American.  Or, if a parent gives their child a name that reflects their ancestry or culture that means that they don’t see themselves as American.  

    It all boils down to one thing, Jessica isn’t the one with the problem, so she shouldn’t change anything that she is doing.

  • fuzzywuzzy

    I think she is the one with the problem when she claims to be Filipino. She’s not. She’s American.

    I honestly don’t think that anyone born in a country should refer to themselves in a “hyphenated” way. There’s no reason for it, IMO.

    ETA: “It’s just like jumping to the conclusion that someone who calls themselves African American or Asian American doesn’t see themselves as American.”

    I just don’t understand the necessity of the hyphenated self-reference. There’s no point to it. In fact, I think that the hyphenated self-reference is what panders to the bigots and racists.

  • standtotheright

    I honestly don’t think that anyone born in a country should refer to themselves in a “hyphenated” way. There’s no reason for it, IMO.

    The reason is that they consider that part of their personal identity and they want to express it. 

    Sanchez was raised with a certain cultural upbringing that she apparently considers as valid to shaping her worldview as her nationality. That is her experience and no one else’s, and so no one else can really claim she shouldn’t refer to herself in that way.

    Pretending that she feels otherwise is what would be “pandering,” not expressing it.

    I would like to think that what happened during WWII won’t happen again, but I have doubts.

    I think those doubts have to contend with what we’ve actually seen as policy in modern America. We can’t ignore that the last 10 years of history were easily exploitable in just that manner and, while we can certainly raise civil liberties concerns regarding the post-911 era, there was nothing remotely comparable to WWII enacted or even publicly supported.

  • http://twitter.com/eilonwya10 Eilonwy

    I just don’t understand the necessity of the hyphenated self-reference. There’s no point to it. In fact, I think that the hyphenated self-reference is what panders to the bigots and racists.

    Eh, real bigots have much more colorful terms for African-Americans and Japanese-Americans, and these terms neither recognize the person as “American” nor treat the person’s ancestry with dignity.

    So in at least some cases, the point of the hyphenated self-reference is that it’s a lot more dignified and respectful than what the person would otherwise be called by people who have a problem with his or her skin color or ancestry.

    Internment of Japanese-Americans followed from 30-40 years of entrenched, government-approved, open bigotry, in which immigrants from Asian countries could not obtain U.S. citizenship and, in the Pacific Coast states, were legally barred from owning land and/or businesses. It didn’t come out of nowhere in a bout of wartime hysteria, and it wasn’t prevented by U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry proudly calling themselves Americans. If there’s anything on the books now comparable to the California Alien Land Act of 1913, that’s news to me.

  • fuzzywuzzy

    “The reason is that they consider that part of their personal identity and they want to express it. 

    Sanchez was raised with a certain cultural upbringing that she
    apparently considers as valid to shaping her worldview as her
    nationality. That is her experience and no one else’s, and so no one
    else can really claim she shouldn’t refer to herself in that way.

    Pretending that she feels otherwise is what would be “pandering,” not expressing it.”

    But Jessica goes further than just acknowledging her ethnic heritage. IMO, she undermines her citizenship by saying that although she was born in the U.S., she considers herself Filipino. Not that she’s “also” Filipino. That is different from an American acknowledging and showing their appreciation for their ethnic heritage. Also, what I’m not sure of here is how much she (and her family) are pandering to Filipinos for career and financial reasons.

  • revcat

    I posted something and can’t find it. So I will summarize it: Nobody has the right to tell someone else how they should define themselves. End of story. Rock on Jessica!

  • fuzzywuzzy

     ”Eh, real bigots have much more colorful terms for
    African-Americans and Japanese-Americans, and these terms neither
    recognize the person as “American” nor treat the person’s ancestry with
    dignity.

    So in at least some cases, the point of the hyphenated self-reference
    is that it’s a lot more dignified and respectful than what the person
    would otherwise be called by people who have a problem with his or her
    skin color or ancestry.”

    True, but that’s sort of my point. It’s a “qualification” of sorts to have a hyphenated self-reference and that somehow that “qualification” is a necessary distinction, instead of just regarding oneself as simply, “American”. No such “qualification” should be or is necessary, IMO.

  • standtotheright

    IMO, she undermines her citizenship by saying that although she was born in the U.S., she considers herself Filipino.

    [shrugs] If the context of the question (which we weren’t given) was, “Does Filipino culture have any influence on your life in America?” then it would be a perfectly acceptable answer to give; she’d simply be saying that being born in the U.S. did not prevent her from “acknowledging and showing [her] appreciation for [her] ethnic heritage” but rather that she could feel Filipino “through and through.” It’s a fairly standard response for second-generation Americans, from what I understand.

    If her mother being a native-born Filipina and the reception from the country is bolstering her career, then I see no reason why she shouldn’t run with it. But that doesn’t mean that she refuses to participate in American culture (as she hasn’t) and it certainly doesn’t mean that she’s giving up her passport.

  • http://profile.yahoo.com/HSH6MBPPCFUOFOLJ6QVEDA6EY4 Lion's DENN

    Jessica’s ethnicity is perhaps one of the reasons why she did not win Idol, because she doesn’t look American as compared with the other contestants. Now that she is slowly making a name for herself outside of Idol, she is being criticized for acknowledging her heritage? Anyone who gets paid six figures in American dollars by three huge Philippine companies in four to five days’ work would ‘pander’ to their mother’s homeland as well. Two more Filipino companies to endorse – which is not a far-fetched thing at all – and she will be a dollar-millionaire. Can the land of her birth be able to give her that distinction in so short a time?

    She has been asked a lot by the Philippine media about her “Filipino-ness” and she was forthright in answering that all she knows about the country is the food because her grandmother cooks lumpia, sinigang, etc. at home in California, saying she feels more Filipino than Mexican because of that. Does that make her any less American? Revcat is correct: “Nobody has the right to tell someone else how they should define themselves.” Being judgmental apparently has not gone out of style since America elected its first hyphenated president.

    When dirt coming out of nowhere is thrown at you, you are obviously on the way to stardom. The girl is only 17 years old, she still has a lot to learn but even so, she handles herself pretty well. Rock on, Jessica!

  • http://twitter.com/TheGreenjay Greenjay

    You can tell from her answers that she’s trying to not insult Filipinos. But in doing so, it sounded as if she’s claiming to be ONLY Filipino and I know that’s not what she really considers herself. I know what she really wanted to say was what she has said in the past which was she’s American with Filipino and Mexican roots. But of course, if she had said that, a lot of Filipinos would flip out and say stuff like “Oh look at that! She’s not proud to be Filipino! BOO!”. Some of them pisses me off with their possessiveness.

    As others have said, it’s up to her to define who she is. This shouldn’t even be an issue! I don’t want her to feel pressured to not say what she really feels just because she thinks people will react badly to it. But I don’t blame her at all! I can tell her intentions were good!

    Next year when she does visit the Philippines again, I really hope she gets asked more music related questions rather than questions about what she’s having for dinner! Ugh!

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