It seems like the new rule for Republicans is to never, ever have a campaign ad with a black male candidate and a white woman.
The quip over John McCain’s “celebrity” ad has raised a lot of ruckus. Now, I think it is in very poor taste to paint Barack Obama as an empty-headed celebrity ala Britney and Paris, but I don’t get the charge of racism coming from some. Some Barack supporters see a picture of a black man and two white women and it conjures up the belief that the McCain camp was putting up a racist ad.
Now of course, the GOP has a sad history of airing racially-tinged ads that were correctly condemned. But this one? No, it’s not racist.
Why? Well, I can’t look into the hearts of those that produced the message, but simply showing a black man and two white women doesn’t make an ad racist. There’s just no “there” there. I do think all the kerfuffle over the supposed racist tones of the ads has a lot more to say about our assumptions of people than it does about racism.
I think in the minds of many, Republicans are viewed as racist. Yes, there have been racist Republicans (Jesse Helms comes to mind), but it is wrong to assume all Republicans are closet Klansmen. Again, if you have a mindset where people already believe that a whole group of people have a certain characteristic, then it’s easy to believe that the McCain ad is at its heart racist.
The McCain ad is many things. I think it belittles Obama, who is more than just a media sensation. But it is not racist, lest we think to attack an African American opponent at all is racist.
Liberal opponents have every right to criticize McCain over this ad. But I think it is wrong to assume the worst of McCain when it comes to race. Not every Republican is a racist and, barring glaring evidence to the contrary, McCain should be given the benefit of the doubt in that regard