Throughout its history, American Idol has had a fairly checkered past when it comes to winners of color. The show was better at this earlier in its run, when it was commanding a slightly broader audience. Reuben Studdard won the show's second season, and Fantasia Barrino won the third. Jordin Sparks won the show's sixth season, and since then, there have only been three winners of color.

Candice Glover won Season 12, Just Sam won Season 18, and Iam Tongi won Season 21. So, while the show does have a fairly recent history of awarding the prize to people of color, the vast majority of winners historically have been white, and most of them have been men.

Other singing contests like The Voice give the judges some power to keep the results from getting too far out of whack with reality, but it's unclear whether American Idol would ever consider making a similar move. Until it does, though, the show is ultimately at the whim of the people who vote on it.