Adele ‘White Privilege’ Petition Gets Almost 200 Signatures, But Faces Backlash

Last week, Adele became the subject of a pretty angry petition on Change.org. The mission statement was very harsh.

“Adele sold over 3.38 million copies of her album ’25’ and the media is praising her as if Adele’s success has everything to do with talent. Rather, it’s her white privilege that has put her on top,” the petition claimed.

The petition went on to note that Adele has sold more than recent albums by Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Janet Jackson, while also stating the albums by the aforementioned artists are supposedly “better.” The mission statement of the petition says that the fawning over Adele by fans and the press continues to show how minorities are repressed in the music business.

The Adele “white privilege” petition has gone on to generate a lot of signatures but also a backlash. Snopes thinks that the petition may even be a complete hoax.

“What was true was that a petition titled ‘Adele Needs To Publicly Recognize Her White Privilege’ was published to Change.org on 30 November 2015. The petition was credited to an individual named ‘Rihanna Jones,’ who didn’t return any hits in a Google search restricted to before 30 November 2015.”

However, there have been many legit petitions at Change.org credited to nicknames only because people don’t want to face the wrath of internet stalkers. Snopes determined that the petition doesn’t represent a meaningful number of people who believe in the petition’s goals. They may have a point, but that was based on only 31 people signing the petition rather than the 200 signatures it has now. Many who signed the petition obviously believe the “cause” is important enough.

Whether or not the petition is meaningful, it sure has produced a lot of backlash, even from African Americans and other minority groups. Several commenters after the original article on Inquisitr about the Adele petition thought the whole idea of Adele not completely earning her success was ridiculous.

“This is complete rubbish and it just pisses me off that people still has this racial issue up. it is not about race where was this petition when Michael Jackson was on top of the charts and got recognition after recognition and broke records after records. This is simply bs and this petition just shows how dumb and simple minded some people are,” Nicholas Forbes posted.

“Any person that agrees with this petition is a racist and you should be ashamed,” claimed Melanie D. Young.

There has also been a backlash to the Adele petition on Twitter.

Someone find who started this ridiculous petition, and punch that bitch in the face. And I don't even like Adele https://t.co/HDOtqDvqkf

— Jason (@jason1040) December 8, 2015

Saying that Adele is only successful because of "white privilege" is the dumbest thing I've seen all day.

— Caroline Craig David (@CarolineCDavid) December 9, 2015

Adele probably isn’t sweating too much over this latest petition, especially given that her latest album 25 has passed the 5 million mark in the United States. Billboard has the news.

“Adele’s 25 has now sold more than 5 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. It’s the first album to sell 5 million in a calendar year since Adele’s previous album, 21, did so in 2011.”

The article adds that 25 had sold more than 510,000 copies in its third week of sale. That amount would be considered incredible, even for first week figures. Adele has taken the spotlight away from other female pop titans such as Taylor Swift. People shouldn’t be surprised that there are petitions targeting Adele. After all, the bigger the artist, the bigger the target.