Attack Ads Are Darkening the Skin Tone of Black Candidates

[Kid Berwyn]

While those responsible claim innocent technical problems, the larger pattern is consistent.

So is the effect: heightened white racial anxieties.

by BILL LUEDERS
The Bulwark, OCTOBER 19, 2022

It’s working. Once ahead in the polls, Democrat Mandela Barnes, the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, is now trailing Republican incumbent Ron Johnson in the state’s race for U.S. Senate, a shift also seen recently in other important races. One factor is an onslaught of negative messaging that seeks to paint Barnes as a crime-loving radical. A key word here is “paint.”

One of the ads, from the National Republican Senate Committee, ends with a shot that brands Barnes, who is black, as “different” and “dangerous” as it pictures him alongside three congresswomen of color who are members of “The Squad,” none of whom has campaigned with him. For good measure, the state Republican party sent out a mailer in which the color of Barnes’s skin has clearly been darkened. Here’s a side-by-side comparison that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:



A similar alteration recently happened with Stacey Abrams, who is facing off against Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp. His campaign team took an image of Abrams from an ad that she had run and made her complexion noticeably darker. Here’s a screenshot of a side-by-side that ran on WXIA-TV in Atlanta:



Continues…

https://www.thebulwark.com/attack-ads-are-darkening-the-skin-tone-of-black-candidates/

Lower than shark droppings, the GOP.

[Guilded Lilly]

1. GOP are human stains.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. They aren't ashamed of judging by skin color.

Confederates and the NAZIs have that in common.

[RockRaven]

2. Not just attack ads, also "news" sites like Politico.

[Kid Berwyn]

9. Politico of all things.

Its founder, Joe L. Allbritton, has the connected-Aspen roots that tie the LBJ and Bush clans together. From his obit:

He was a key member of a generation of Houstonians — including George H.W. Bush and LBJ aide Jack Valenti — who leveraged their Texas achievements and connections into outsize Washington careers. Valenti, who died in 2007, was one of Allbritton’s closest friends; the 41st president was a regular at the annual brunch Allbritton and his wife, Barbara, held at their Washington home on the morning after the Alfalfa dinner, an exclusive gathering of top business and political leaders.

http://www.politico.com/story/2012/12/joe-allbritton-dies-at-87-85004.html

The Real Swells.

[Afrocat]

3. they know their bigoted, purse clutching, street crossing, is that you car asking,

open carry needing, store following, base very well.

[Kid Berwyn]

11. My first crush was Karen F.

Fourth grade. She is a beautiful, kind, compassionate, brilliant and earnest person of integrity.

There’d be more people like her if we raised them in a world like this:



JFK thought the poets were just as important as the generals, but not the generals.

[Earth-shine]

4. Not just black people either. I got a mailer that was a negative advertisement about Charlie Crist.

It has a picture of Crist with Biden and for both of them, the skin is substantially darkened. It almost looks like a negative, but it's just some ugly photoshopping.

[Kid Berwyn]

12. NAZIs.

"To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice." -- Kung Fu-tzu (Confucius)

[LeftInTX]

19. Biden?? LOL

[underthematrix]

5. As an African American I don't think this is gonna work quite the way

MAGAs hoped. For example, Clarence Thomas is dark skin. Tim Scott is dark skin and then there's the gorgeous, powerful awesome Def Sec Austin. He's like BLACK GOLD


I imagine Barnes and Abrams are rolling their eyes to keep from laughing.

[Kid Berwyn]

13. Does Clarence Thomas await his reward in the afterlife?

The guy got his job by kissing the kinder, gentler machine gun hand.

[sakabatou]

6. Hasn't the GOP been doing this for years?

[Kid Berwyn]

15. Since Nixon was a pup.

A short history of campaign dirty tricks before Twitter and Facebook

Elaine Kamarck
Brookings Institute, Thursday, July 11, 2019

Excerpt…

To understand the world of dirty tricks it helps to understand their function in the context of an election. Elections are fought over a finite period of time—Election Day is the endpoint—and public interest increases as Election Day approaches. Unlike a dirty trick against a corporation, which might be remedied in time for a product to rebound, a dirty trick timed to occur before the election can have a definitive impact even if it is proven to be false. The ramifications can be enormous because U.S. elections cannot be re-run.

A brief summary of some of the dirty tricks in American elections shows that they tend to have the following objectives:

* create doubt around a candidate’s character;
* confuse the voters about the election;
* break into the opponent’s sphere and get information on them;
* affect the actual outcome by interfering with the counting process.

CANDIDATE CHARACTER

Sex has long been a favorite topic of the dirty trick.[3] In the early 1800’s politics was no less suffused with innuendo than today. Among the most salacious stories were those penned by the partisan journalist James Callender, who alleged in a series of articles that Thomas Jefferson had fathered several children with his young slave, Sally Hemings. For nearly two centuries this was held up as an early example of dirty campaigning. In 1998, thanks to DNA testing, it turned out that Thomas Jefferson had indeed fathered illegitimate children with his slave.

Two centuries later, the combination of illicit sex and race was still the ideal fodder for the creation of a dirty trick. In the 2000 Republican presidential primary then-Governor George Bush of Texas was running against Senator John McCain of Arizona. McCain won the New Hampshire primary and the race went on to South Carolina where the Bush campaign knew they had to stop McCain. Using a tried and true strategy, the phony poll, opponents of McCain spread a complete falsehood. Phone calls to South Carolina Republican voters asked “Would you be more or less likely to vote for John McCain… if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?” McCain and his wife Cindy had adopted a dark-skinned girl from Bangladesh in 1991 and that child, Bridget, was campaigning with them in South Carolina.

Continues…

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2019/07/11/a-short-history-of-campaign-dirty-tricks-before-twitter-and-facebook/

They aren’t called “ratfuckers” for nothing, Republicans.

[Meadowoak]

8. Andy Barr has an ad out, saw it first time today.

It has a doctored up picture of Nancy Pelosi, making her look sinister and really old, it says Nancy Pelosi wants to kill your babies, and keep your gas prices high....I had to turn the channel

[Kid Berwyn]

16. Any time a Republican brings up the Speaker, I remind them of this.

She said to Trump’s face: "With you, all roads lead to Putin."

[Meadowoak]

18. I think that's exactly why they hate her. That picture.

[GoCubsGo]

10. It's the same old bullshit they've been pulling for decades.

I recall them doing the same thing to Barack Obama. They also do it to whichever black alleged criminal is their boogeyman of the moment. One would think people are finally seeing through this garbage by now. One would think...

[RussBLib]

17. some people are seeing thru it

but those people (us) are not very racist, and we are not the target audience. This crap is pointed towards the (known) quantity of active racists who ain't all that bright in the first place. Easy to fool. It's despicable. Deplorable, even.

[Kid Berwyn]

21. OJ

The June 27, 1994, issue of Newsweek featured O.J. Simpson's mug shot. Time magazine drew ire for digitally manipulating the same picture to darken Simpson's skin and make him appear unshaven and blurrier. The magazine later pulled the issue and circulated a new copy of the magazine featuring a different, unaltered photo of Simpson.

Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/photos/pharrell-cover-controversial-magazine-covers-16328228/image-16328306

[Cracklin Charlie]

14. I think they're darkening Sharice David's face in Kansas ads.

She’s not even black!

[Kid Berwyn]

22. All The Bias Reinforced

Native Americans are not White.

“Somethin’ about that woman.”

[keithbvadu2]

28. ...African-American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans."

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216266980

"So...African Americans aren't real Americans, Mr. Turtleman, sir?"

...African-American voters are voting in just as high a percentage as Americans."

What about Irish-Americans or Italian-Americans or ____-Americans?

Link to tweet

[Cracklin Charlie]

31. Yeah, it's somethin'.

They can’t stand her competence and professionalism.

She’s just great. I wish she was my rep, but right next door is good, and I love my Rep. Cleaver.

Go, Sharice!

[keithbvadu2]

20. Is the GOP darkening Herschel's face in their ads?

Is the GOP darkening Herschel's face in their ads?

Rhetorical question of course.

[Kid Berwyn]

23. Putting party before country, the GOP gives their candidate a pass.

Otherwise, they’d point out how the guy makes as much sense as the lyrics to “Yummy, Yummy Yummy, I’ve Got Love In My Tummy” when played backwards at 78.

[GoCubsGo]

27. Nope,and Tim Scott is getting a pass,as well.

Unlike what they're doing to Stacey Abrams and Raphael Warnock. I get to see the ads from both states. Lucky me.

[electric_blue68]

24. 😑 Ugh, another round of this garbage?...

Was the Willie Horton Ad the first round of this particular kind of racist approach?

[Kid Berwyn]

25. Must be cost effective.

Certainly plays on the sub-conscious biases most humans hold.

Goes back way before Willie Horton:

A short history of campaign dirty tricks before Twitter and Facebook

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2019/07/11/a-short-history-of-campaign-dirty-tricks-before-twitter-and-facebook/

[Solomon]

29. Finally, you touched on it. Its not just "racists" they are affecting. Its our subconscious bias.

I get so tired of people thinking its just the "racists", their base, etc. they are talking to. No. Its everybody. And it works.

[UniqueUserName]

26. The thing I find most offensive is. . .

. . .That the people creating these ads think that I and most Americans would be offended by dark skin.

They are preaching to their choir. I hate white supremacist. I am a mid 50s lily-white male. I am much more interested in people's ideas than their skin color.

Misogyny is systemic as well. When I speak, I vocal fry. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to on the phone that think that I am an old woman and then they apologize profusely for saying, "I'm sorry ma'am." And I have to say to them, "why would I be offended by that? I like old women. . ."

I have to admit though, I am disappointed at how many people that it does matter to. I thought we were better than that.

When I met my husband, he had iridescent skin. The blood vessels pulsed and change color with each heartbeat. He was a redhead. I never thought I would love someone as much as I loved him.

It's not your thing? Ebony skin is not your thing? We Are All One species. Just try to be good.

[Kid Berwyn]

30. Thank you for sharing.

“We Are All One species. Just try to be good.”



The rotters want to defund public education out of fear.

We think what we become.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

32. I reckon that makes this ok, then ...

[Kid Berwyn]

33. That is so Paleogazpacho

And thus, today.