August 13, 2004
Crazy Al and other black "leaders" upset at GOP's anti-Kerry ads on black radio
I've said repeatedly that the Republican party needs to advertise it's message in black media. That it needs to get that message out to blacks in urban areas in order to get any sort of true outreach going toward the black mainstream in America.
Now that this is beginning to happen, you are seeing black liberals going up in smoke.
After all, they've had free reign to spoon-feed any story they want -- true or not -- about conservatives in black media for years. But that era is coming to an end. Conservatives have a right and a responsibility to speak up for themselves not only in the mainstream media, but in black media as well.
But to hear Al Sharpton and others tell it, we don't have that right.
"It's laughable that the Republicans would trot out these paid Negroes to try to cut into the 92% of African-Americans that tends to vote Democratic," said Rep. William Clay (D-Mo.)The ads do not mention President Bush. They include People of Color United head Patricia Walden-Ford talking about Teresa Heinz-Kerry's "African American" background."Bush cannot get away with this foolishness," Sharpton said. "It will backfire. It will turn around and energize people to beat George Bush."
"His wife says she's an African-American. While technically true, I don't believe a white woman, raised in Africa, surrounded by servants, qualifies."Another ad refers to Kerry as "rich, white and wishy-washy."
Sounds like Crazy Al is upset at the very idea of conservatives finally broaching black media with a conservative message.
Last I checked, that wasn't a bad thing; that is unless you have a desire to suppress the exchange of ideas.
Posted by mhking at August 13, 2004 08:00 AMPolitical advertising comes in different flavors: positive voter education about your candidate, negative voter information about your candidate, and voter suppression.
The ad is about voter suppression.
People complained about the NAACP Voter Fund ad.
People will complain about this ad.
They both are foul.
Another ad refers to Kerry as "rich, white and wishy-washy."
Isn't that normally called pulling the race card?
Where are the ads referring to Bush's support of HBCU's?
Posted by: DarkStar at August 13, 2004 09:37 AMI'm not sure about the "voter suppression" angle, but I gotta go with Darkster on the "rich, white" thing. Both Bush and Kerry are rich and white, so those are non-starters. The only reason that that language was chosen, it seems t'me, was only for the purpose of pushing the button of base racialism that may preoccupy many in the targetted audience.
Posted by: Tuning Spork at August 14, 2004 06:44 PMNotably absent from this article was a discussion that the GOP front group running the ads was largely funded by a white insurance tycoon in bed with the GOP.
Posted by: Shaula Evans at August 15, 2004 01:25 AMI can't argue Darkstar's point there -- though I thing pointing out that Kerry isn't part of the "great unwashed masses," is not necessarily a bad thing. He keeps trying (unsuccessfully, IMO) to paint himself as a "common man," when he clearly ain't.
Shaula, on the other hand, how is the funding of the GOP ads any different from any other rich white groups running the Democratic ads? Those two points also cancel themselves out; the bottom line (as I'm trying to point out) is that parity is finally starting come to the table in terms of advertising in black media -- which is something that has been sorely needed, and something that I continue to criticize my fellow conservatives on regularly.
Posted by: mhking at August 15, 2004 06:33 AMKerry definitely doesn't get a comp. ghetto pass.
The thing, I think, that creators of the ad don't realize is that it's going to cause a backlash.
It's already known that Kerry's wife called herself an African-American. She's already been mocked in the Black media for doing it. The ad isn't going to do anything but, possibly, get some more anti-Bush votes out.
But that is my opinion. I could be wrong.
It's the wrong type of ad to do. They really should be touting their HBCU initiatives.