The Harold Ford Ad Scandal: Pots Calling The Kettle Racist
(Cross-posted from Teenage Pundit)
The ad parodies several of [Democratic candidate] Ford’s political positions through mock interviews with people defending or agreeing with him. “Terrorists need their privacy,” a woman indignantly insists. “Ford’s right,” says a hunter , “I do have too many guns.” A Wilford Brimley look-alike declares, “Canada can take care of North Korea — they’re not busy.” And a bare-shouldered bimbo squeals, “I met Harold at the Playboy party” — a reference to Playboy’s 2005 Super Bowl bash in Florida, which Ford attended. The ditzy blonde returns at the end to whisper, with a wink, “Harold: call me!” [Source: Boston.com]
What’s the left-wing’s criticism of this ad? That the ad is inaccurate? No. That the ad misrepresents the candidate’s positions? Nope.
The Democrats’ colossal problem with the commercial: the actress playing the model is white, while Ford is black.
Who are the racists here?
It was a witty, entertaining ad — and it promptly had liberals and
Democrats and even the odd Republican screeching about how “racist” it
was. The NAACP issued a press release calling it “racially charged
political propaganda” akin to “The Birth of a Nation,” D. W. Griffith’s paean to the Ku Klux Klan. Salon
described it as an “attempt to inflame white bigotry about interracial
relationships and white fears of black male sexuality.” Vanderbilt
University professor John Geer breathlessly told AP: “I’ve not met any observer who didn’t immediately say, ‘Oh, my gosh!’ It was a race card.” [Source: Boston.com]
By now, I expect most are aware of the controversy surrounding this Tennessee political advertisement. Essentially, the fact that the actress portraying the ditzy Playboy model is white means the Republicans are playing on the (apparently widespread, according to the left?) Southern fears of interracial relationships.
This is complete hogwash. It is a fact that the candidate, in his romping and stomping about town like, well, a young man spoiled with power, attented a Playboy party. It’s a fact that white models were in attendance. What’s the big deal, really?
For Boston.com, Jeff Jacoby sees it my way:
The ad would be just as effective if Ford were white. The Playboy blonde isn’t a coded reference to interracial dating (which, according to the Pew Research Center, most Southern whites don’t oppose anyway). Her presence isn’t a subliminal reminder of Ford’s color. It is a cue that Ford, who campaigns as something of a goody-goody — one of his campaign spots was filmed in a church — may be a little less straitlaced than he lets on. [Source: Boston.com]
The racists in this debate aren’t those who produced the ad, they are those who saw it and immediately thought a white-black relationship is so scandalous and such a big deal that the Republicans HAD to mean something special by it.
If the “bunny” was dark-skinned, I’m sure we’d be hearing about either
- the ad’s implication that all black women are strippers and whores
- the ad’s implication that of course Ford, being a black man, could only have a relationship with another black woman, because the Republicans are racist and don’t believe in interracial relationships
According to Washington NAACP head Hilary Shelton, “It is a powerful innuendo that plays to pre-existing prejudices about
African-American men and white women” [Source: Yahoo].
He’s right, except for one thing – the prejudices belong to the critics, not the advertisers.
80 Responses to “The Harold Ford Ad Scandal: Pots Calling The Kettle Racist”
the ad exagerates fords stands on issues and the republicans accept money from pornographers, and im sorry, but the white woman in the ad is definitley there for subliminal racial effect
the author of this article is naive if he thinks that the repug party wasnt playing to innate race based fears
Well, Andrew’s back from the dead! I can’t say I agree with him on this issue but I’m glad he’s back to posting at TMV!
This may be the single most ignorant post I’ve ever read on TMV.
I don’t know who you are, Andrew, but you know very little about politics, or the history of race relations, or the history of the southern strategy, or for that matter the art/craft of attack ads.
There were no facts stated. Thus of course no facts could be refuted. It’s a classic smear. A well-done smear makes direct refutation impossible. You’re being hopelessly literal in approaching something that is subtle in spite of the cartoonish on-screen action.
I am an older guy with family in Nashville. No doubt in my mind that the ad was stirring up racism by featuring a white woman coming on to Ford.
Most politics is local and the folks making the ad knew exactly what they were doing.
“The Democrats’ colossal problem with the commercial: the actress playing the model is white, while Ford is black.
Who are the racists here?”
I know the answer to that. It’s…
A.) The people who think interracial marriage should be outlawed, which in the States was more than half the population until 1991. (http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_marp.htm)
B.) The people who pander to these racists in order to get votes, which the Republicans admited to doing just a couple years ago. In fact, 2000 Bush’s compaign put forth a push poll asking people, and I’m quoting, “If you knew McCain fathered an illegitimate nigger baby would you still vote for him?”
I think it’s pretty fucking stupid to say, “Recognizing racism proves that you are racist.”
Who is the joker that wrote this lame post?
Obviously not from the South I can easily tell that from the Boston.com link, or unbaised either considering the RNCC backed fancyford.com link, which is beyond desperate.
If I want thoughful right leaning posts I’ll stick with MvdG, even when he pisses me off he’s 1000% better than this joker.
Somebody get the hook out.
I don’t know who Andrew is but obviously from the cross-post listed he’s rather young. I’m similar to Paul in Austin in that I’m older and have a lot of family in Tennessee. Even though it’s been years since I’ve been there I can tell you that the kind of racism I saw there on a regular basis hasn’t had nearly enough time to die completely.
Ford is biracial you buttheads. He’s just as much white as he is black.
I think Andrew is a high-school student.
DD, please see Item 5 of the Comment Policy.
Holly:
I didn’t realize that. I would have tempered my comments. He writes well and seems like a smart kid, maybe just a little young to realize what SOB’s politicians (and their media people) can be.
Or maybe, Takhallus, he just sees that politicians in the Democratic party can be just as much SOBs as Republicans when they want to use racism to their advantage.
Andrew, I think it was a great post and I agree completely with you and with Jeff Jacoby on this.
C Stan your home early, did Bush’s loyalty oath mixer in Georgia let out early?
It’s one thing to say you don’t think the ad is meant to appeal to racists. While I think the very long and sorry history of race relations in this country would strongly suggest otherwise, you’re entitled to your opinion.
But you’re not going to persuade anyone – particularly on this site – by simply calling him or her a “racist” while you simultaneously deny that racism is still a problem. “Oversensitive” may or may not be an appropriate term, but how is it racist? How on earth do you even define a racist, anyway?
FYI, Hilary Shelton is a “he.”
Remember the Desparate Housewives commercial?
C Stanley:
If there was nothing wrong with the ad, why did Ken Mehlman in effect apologize for it?
To “Pyst”, who is unwarrantedly so: Obviously not from the South I can easily tell that from the Boston.com link, or unbaised either considering the RNCC backed fancyford.com link, which is beyond desperate.
Those links were copy and pasted from the Boston.com article. I’m sorry if you don’t find this “unbaised” to your tastes, but I was exactly quoting the HTML of my original source. I would’ve thought the indentation and italics made that clear, but, hey. You’re hardly the king of clarity yourself, it would seem.
—-
Harold Ford: “I don’t think race had anything to do with that ad.”
I guess “Takhallus” would say that, like me, Ford “know[s] very little about politics, or the history of race relations, or the history of the southern strategy, or for that matter the art/craft of attack ads.”
—-
Strowbridge – “If you knew McCain fathered an illegitimate nigger baby would you still vote for him?” is not a direct quote from any Republican poll, ever, and your fabrication of this helps further illustrate exactly which side is playing the race card.
Boy you like flogging this horse CS. I don’t doubt you honestly believe it isn’t a big deal with your set.
Down here in Bush Country Texas that add would be considered racist as h*ll. Karl’s from down here, and he knows just what he’s doing.
Fear of your white 15 yr old daughter coming home with a black guy pretty much drives the “family values” crowd.
Thats what that code-word means.
To paraphrase Holly,
Pyst, please see Item 5 of the Comment Policy.
It’s the personal attack part I am referencing.
Right, because we both know they didn’t use the N word. It was more subtle than that.
Thats some mighty fine hair-splitting. Your masters will be pleased.
Webb is going to win. Ford’s not going to win. The problem is Ford’s not white. He’s not white and there are a significant number of white Americans who aren’t going to vote for someone who ISN’t white. I’ll say it another way: they base their vote on race. He’s down 8 percent now, he’ll probably loose by 10 or 12 percent.
Thats some mighty fine hair-splitting. Your masters will be pleased.
My, where to begin.
I’m not sure who my masters are, as a neolibertarian independent who supports a Green, a Democrat, and a Republican in his local 2006 elections. And I don’t appreciate your idiotically condescending tone.
I can see why the extremist-leftys are in such bad shape if they see pointing out lies prefaced by and I’m quoting as “hair-splitting.”
Andrew,
Ford claimed that race had nothing to do with it because if he’d cried “racism,” he would have lost people on the fence. He has to stay above the fray on this, just like Webb did on Allen’s bizarre gaffes. Let the operatives do the dirty work.
Andrew:
You missed the politics here. And you should pay attention to what Ford did here because this was Grade A political playmaking.
The Ford Campaign decided to pull a little jujitsu with the GOP. Ford used the ad to pivot to “faith,” casting the spot as an attack on his faith. Had he let them move the dialog to race he’d have been doing what the GOP wanted. But Ford pivoted to “faith” with a brilliant counter-attack spot that gave him the opportunity to restate one of the central themes of his campaign: his faith.
It’s about staying on message. The GOP wanted Ford to play “the black Dem.” He wanted to play “the Christian Dem.”
Look at it this way. Let’s say you’re running for office and one of your vulnerabilities is youth. Your opponents want to talk about your youth. You want to talk about your plan for social security reform. Your opponent runs a spot calling you “too young.” If you then pipe up and say “how dare he accuse me of being too young!” you’re doing your opponent’s work for him.
So you pivot. You say, “They’re questioning my committment to the aged, and I have spent my career devoting myself to the interests of the aged.” You don’t sell their talking point, you sell your own.
Ford and his team are smart pols.
Nothing in your long winded retort negates what in fact is hair splitting.
But I did like your immeadiate umbrage at my tone and your lengthy commentary on that as a way to not actually address what in fact is hair splitting.
Take out the N word, and that was exactly what that push-poll stated. So technicaly you were correct.
In spirit, another matter.
It really kind of sucks when I have to make your arguments for you, while you go off on some rant about god knows what.
You want to be a front pager, then you gotta deal with the rabble.
“Strowbridge – “If you knew McCain fathered an illegitimate nigger baby would you still vote for him?” is not a direct quote from any Republican poll, ever, and your fabrication of this helps further illustrate exactly which side is playing the race card.”
I talked to the person who got the call. He said person on the other end used the word, ‘Nigger.’ If you want to call him a liar, that’s your choice.
Takhallus nails why Ford said what he said.
Ford knows people will make up their own minds.
He is a good politician.
C.S.Strowbridge throws a rock in the pool.
What does this mean grasshopper?
There are extensive reports of the push poll saying “If you knew McCain fathered an illegitimate black baby would you still vote for him?”
But that is the first time I heard the N word.
Well big front page guy, you been called out straight up.
To all those who feel the ad is racist:
As AQ asked in his post, what would you think if they had placed a black “bunny” in the ad?
I think many people would still be upset.
I’m sorry if you think the presence or absence of the word “nigger” is negligable or hair-splitting. I personally don’t throw around such terms.
There are extensive reports of the push poll saying “If you knew McCain fathered an illegitimate black baby would you still vote for him?”
Well big front page guy, you been called out straight up.
Hm? I never said race has never been used in the history of Republican politics. I stated my opinion that this is not a racist ad. Let’s hear it, critics, as Mr. Bell reiterates: wouldn’t it have been equally racist to have a black woman? Then, the “Repugnicans” (or whatever GREAT term you use in your civil arguments) would be implying that blacks can only have sex with other blacks? Right?
Ford HAS had white girlfriends. If people were going to take offense to that, they didn’t need an ad about it. The ad was based on fact in this regard.
I’m sorry if you think the presence or absence of the word “nigger” is negligable or hair-splitting.
You can use the word or not, but in the context of that question, it hardly matters. In fact if the N word was used that would be even more honest about it anyway.
I have heard balck people say that at least in the south, they know where they stand. So there is something to be said for honesty.
There is nothing to be said for the race-baiting of the actuall push poll. It was of the lowest common denominator.
So in short, wether you personally use the N word or not really doesnt matter in the over all schme of things.
But just as an intelectual excersize, go back and count how many time you actually did use the N word.
Then count how many times I did.
Then consider this
Again.
Are you sure about that?
Ford HAS had white girlfriends.
And now he has a black wife. I wonder how she felt about the add.
Plus it insinuates he cheates on his wife.
Kind of a two-fer.
Using it for the sake of discussion is pretty different than using it as a synonym for an African-American. Yes, it is an ugly word – maybe he shouldn’t have posted it in the first place, introducing it to a forum of intelligent debate, with no evidence supporting his claim to its use.
And now he has a black wife. I wonder how she felt about the add.
Plus it insinuates he cheates on his wife.
Kind of a two-fer.
Yes, I didn’t say it was a good ad. I said it wasn’t racist. A topic you’ve quickly and quietly drifted from.
Well, its a subjective call at best, so we disagree. I wish we were past the point were there was even any question.
But Rove has a history of race baiting, and this has Roves stink all over it.
As a minumum, the Republicans pissed a lot of blacks off, so goodbye to that outreach effort.
Plus it insinuates he cheates on his wife.
Really? The ad doesn’t insinuate any sex. It insinuates that Harold met a woman at a party, and she wants to get in touch with him. Not that he DID call her back, or that he did have sex with her…
Dude, you can strecth the limits of youre own imagination if you want, but that just turns out to be the old “what if the sky is really lime green?” discussion.
Pure speculation. The best thing on it I heard was listining to a talk show. The hosts were discussing wether or not that seemed racist. Then somebody e-mailed them the ‘jungle music’ radio add, and all the hosts imeadiatly said, yea, that was racist.
So Rove was extra carefull to make sure all the TN hillbillies got the message.
<i>Really? The ad doesn’t insinuate any sex. It insinuates that Harold met a woman at a party,</i>
I agree, although the ad didn’t need to suggest they had sex – it just had to suggest that a black man was pursuing a white woman. Such conduct may not result in <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till” >lynchings</a> like it did half a century ago, but a lot of people still don’t take kindly to it. I can personally think of a few.
What I’m saying is that, yes, interracial relationships are unfortunately still a contentious issue among many Southerners.
However, if we want real equality and less racism, we need to stop making our differences even starker and start adapting our society. The first step to making interracial relationships more natural to society would be not to raise a huge hullaballoo every time one appears on TV, claiming the intentions must be racist.
Do you see my point? The woman just as easily could have been black, and the real racism lies with those who claim that the two versions of the commercial would carry different messages.
In other words, racism will never disappear if everyone assumes that a black man and a white woman’s relationship, even if it IS insinuated in a commercial (it’s not), is playing the race card.
YOU are the ones inserting race as an issue.
Question: anybody here ever lived in the DEEP south for any length of time? Not in the larger cities: Atlanta, or Nashville or Miami. I mean deep south. I used to live in Georgia and I still have family there. Waycross, Cordele, Thomasville, Moultrie, Sylvester, Cairo. These are very small towns.
And it’s different. I love to visit but!! it is DIFFERENT. I can only speak from experience but a black man needs family around him in those towns, and not just any kind of family; a strong family. I had a strong family. so we did okay. we made a good living. And with 8 brothers I plenty of protection.
No, Rove is the one who made it and ran it in TN.
If he would have ran it in CA or some other progresive state, we wouldnt be having this conversation.
You are obviously palying at being the contrarian, but I would suggest you book some time with AustinRoth who can show you how thats done.
The Republicans used race to try to steal one seat. The Democrats used race to turn the tables.
That means the Democrats are finally willing to go into the gutter to kick the hell out the guttter politican Republicans, then good on em. Gotta fight em where they live unfortunatly.
I doubt many people share your moral outrage.
“There are extensive reports of the push poll saying “If you knew McCain fathered an illegitimate black baby would you still vote for him?”
But that is the first time I heard the N word.”
I know, but the guy I talked said they used the N word. This is not shocking considering where this tactic was used.
Yeah man. I grew up in south Houston, but pretty far outin the countrified SW part. Sante Fe was right down the road, and my favorite memory of that town was when the local KKK burned a Vietnamese fishing boat.
Lots of 4X4s with confederate flags.
I also travel extensivly to coastal LA.
And interacial dating is still frowned upon by the old folk.
The young folk tend to do what ever pisses the old folk off.
Seems you’ve just disproved your entire post. The ad was specificly aimed to stir those “issues”.
To Andrew Quinn:
I don’t think black/whiite dating (or marriage) is the isssue it used to be. But in the small towns I mentioned it would be an issue. There are people in those towns who’d be upset. And they wouldn’t all be white–a lot of blacks would be upset. And Lord help that couple if they tried to join a church (smile) It’s funny; but it’s not funny.
That white person would have to be prepared for live in the black community. I can’t think of any of those towns accepting the white in the white community with a black spouse. It happens I’m sure but its probably rare.
Actually military bases in the south help because there are so many inter-racial marriages in the military.
I guess the reality is we have a long road ahead when it comes to these issues in some parts of the country. But we will get there.
A note from JG, who drove 500 miles today. I’m happy to see Andrew is back. If you don’t agree with him, then you may eventually agree with him because he analyzes each issue separately and gives you his take on it which may vary in viewpoint depending on the issue. He used to do a lot of blogging but has other excellent interests and was focusing on them. If you’re new to this site, it isn’t unusual for some of the people who coblog here to not entirely agree with each other. Somehow this happens and the next morning we all wake up, breathing and the world is still here.
Not a very bright post. Just an example of the poster’s ignornace. Nothing else need be said.
To Snarky:
South HOuston? I’m wondering how attituded there compares to Moultrie. In southern Georgia Town about as big as minute; Not more than 20,000 people I’m sure.