I suppose most of you have heard about the "Racist Ad" run by the RNC in Tennessee against Rep. Harold Ford who is running for US Senate.

Here it is uncut:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkiz1_d1GsA

This is it cut with commentary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT8ukEUuSGE

His opponent Bob Corker has renounced the ad (good for him), and the RNC has claimed they have pulled the ad (but it is being widely reported that the ad is still running in several markets).



Dan Savage said:

I also take issue with its characterization as being racist. I think that southerners should be offended that any depiction of white females associating with black males should be assumed to have racist undertones. The New York Times and other outlets were calling it racist. If anything, the fact that it was a PLAYBOY party is the significance. The ad intends to portray the Democrat as having loose morals, not to say that interracial dating is wrong, but drawing attention to his social life that some would consider too promiscuous.

Where's the racism?

The problem with the articles I've read is they seem to draw no distinction between what the Democrats claim and what the intent appeared to be, or really any opposing viewpoints in general.

If it didn't have racist intent, then why pull the ad?

Are things really that bad in the south still?

I don't know.

I didn't see any racism in the video. Maybe others did. I actually thought it was a pretty clever ad.

I don't think any of you have ever been to the South, or at least it seems that way. Was bush's primary campaign'smentioning of mccain's black daughter in 2000 not racist because it wasn't a clear case of value judgement? The southern strategy is alive and well and to ignore it or deny it is silly.

It depends on where in the South you happen to be.

And I agree with g_v, I didn't see much overt racism in that ad. Even claming that the first woman was presented as stupid b/c she's black is a huge stretch.

The RNC may very well want to avoid a black victor in this race, but this ad is not proof of it.

Wasn't she born out of wedlock? If so, then that should quite apparently be the value judgement, not the issue of interracial relationships. I lived over B's way for a couple of years when I was younger, but I guess North Carolina isn't as redneck as some other states.

The racist part isn't the first woman, it's the ditzy white woman asking Ford to call her. The intent of the ad is to inject race into the discussion by bringing up how Harold Ford, Jr. fucks white girls. It's the same type of bigotry the democrats displayed in 2004 when they talked about Cheney's bull dyke daughter.

So it would have been totally different if it had been a ditzy black woman? I understand how people would think that its there, but I would like to think that we're past that and that this is getting read into a little too much.

I don't have any idea what you're trying to say, but she was adopted by McCain.

Yes, it would have.

And it doesn't matter what you'd like to think.

Give me a break. The black community in America sets up this whole dumb-white-girl-with-black-guy stereotype. They bring it willingly upon themselves, and then they turn around and call it racist when whitey points it out. Sure it was tasteless, but I don't know how you can fault anybody as hateful for doing it.

huh?


What the hell are you talking about? "They" (who are they, anyway?) bring what about willingly?

Listen: whether you want to like it or not, interracial sex has been a taboo in at least some part of America since the slaves were first brought over. There is absolutely no way to dispute this with any factual basis. Inherent in the statement is the fact it still is considered taboo by many. Miscegenation was outlawed in America up until 1967. The only reason it isn't still outlawed is because the Supreme Court ruled such laws unconstitutional. 16 states still had laws outlawing it at the time of the decision, including the one I'm typing from now and Tennessee. South Carolina and Alabama, legally bound by the '67 decision to change their Constitutional outlawing of miscegenation, didn't do so until 1998 and 2000, respectively. Blacks were consistently lynched throughout the South partially because of this. In many areas, if a white girl had a problem with some nigger, all she'd need to to is accuse him of raping her and he'd be gon for. I thought everyone had read To Kill a Mockingbird. Did blacks bring that upon themselves too?

I never said anything about hate. This is pure race-baiting by inserting race into the issue. If you don't think interracial sex has been an issue in the South since this country's inception you simply don't know enough about Southern politics to offer much of anything to the issue.

I don't think anyone is denying that this has been a problem in the south. However, it is highly offensive to the Southern population to say that as a whole they are still small minded bigots.

That's interesting.

Has anyone who is actually FROM the south commented in here about this? Not just living there, born and raised. Because my two good friends who were born and bred there tell me some fascinating stories about race. It's not all blatant or out in the open, and often times it isn't even really hateful. It's just THERE, an ever present undertone that can't be ignored or eliminated.

I think that as insulting as it may be to younger people that someone would say that this sort of shit still exists in the south, it is just as insulting to older southerners, black or white, to pretend that just because young people from Illinois or California can't conceive of this that it doesn't still exist.

I still don't understand the problem with the ad. I know the history of interracial relationships and what a taboo it was for centuries and how fucked up the South is, you don't need to give me a history lesson. From a personal standpoint, I didn't find it offensive. It wouldn't have made any difference if that bitch was white, black, or asian. I'm sorry, but black America is the most hypocritcally shameful demographic from my point of view. I have a lot of empathy for them, but don't get me started on their shortcommings. And God forbid they have shortcommings. Quite a few of the blacks I've met are some of the most racist, conservative, superstitious, God-fearing, homophobic twats around.

As for the ad, the same people who don't want to see this type of thing also sit around and watch Dave Chappelle brag about banging white chicks, and how great white women are, and then praise him for exposing racial differences. But really who cares about interracial dating, it's not a factor. Its the hypocrisy of pointing out how subjected they are to stereotypes, when much of black America is glorifying and reinforcing those same stereotypes. Totally harmless ad from my point of view. Maybe somewhat tasteless (if even that), but the people who made it (assuming they were white) were only doing what their culture and their media show them. And who is that culture and that media? Surely not just white people. That ad had nothing to do with a history of Southern racism. But that is totally beside the point...your basis for this argument is that it's racist because of the history of interracial relationships in this country. Harold Ford is a young and handsome Senator, and not just black. Fuck, he's barely even black. That's what made him a target. It was identifying him with carelessness and decadence. And if that's true, well fuck him. If anything it was more offensive to blondes and people who work in the porn industry.