CHERYL COLE - Messy Little Raindrops

Cheryl Cole accused of racism as X Factor contestant is sent home

Superstar and talent show judge Cheryl Cole has been accused of racism after she told a black singer she was out of the UK’s biggest talent competition.
Cole, 27, had earlier told Nigerian Gamu Nhengu that she had an outstanding voice. But last weekend she told the hopeful: “You’re extremely adorable. You’ve got a great voice. It’s just a question for me now as to whether you brought the star quality that I was looking for yesterday.”
Nhengu, 18, had been one of the favourites to win the annual contest, says the Daily Mail.
Cole’s decision came in a stage of the competition in which contestants, having been split into categories – boys, girls, over-28s and groups – sing at judges’ homes. Each category is allotted one of the judges as a mentor.
The next major stage of the competition features the contestants back before the judges’ panel and an audience in a series of live shows, culminating in the picking of a winner.
The Mail quotes a fan writing on a website as saying (following Cole’s recent bout of malaria contracted while she was in Tanzania): “Cheryl is so daft. I mean, just because Africa gave you malaria doesn’t mean you should take it out on poor Gamu.”
And a fan writing on Digital Spy’s forum is quoted as saying: “If these decisions were made on U.S. X Factor, there’d be a race riot. I swear to God, African-Americans would go mental.”
There has even been a dedicated Facebook group set up as criticism of Cole’s decision, says the Mail.